The final pre-service lineup.
The inimitable Fountain restaurant at the Four Seasons hotel served its last dinner service on Saturday, December 27. The decision to wind down operations was announced last month, to allow a suitably dignified end to the restaurant's 31-year run before the Four Seasons shuts down next year. The hotel will relocate to the upper levels of the Comcast Innovation and Technology Center at 18th and Arch. There's no word yet on what the dining options at the new Four Seasons will look like.
While the restaurant's celebrated dinner service is over, the restaurant will continue to serve breakfast and lunch indefinitely, owing to its hotel location. Dinner and brunch will still be available in the adjacent lounge. The hotel itself plans to close in spring of 2015, while the new Comcast tower it will call home is not expected to open until 2017.
The Fountain's first chef, Jean-Marie Lacroix, meets in the kitchen with its last chef, William DiStefano.
The Fountain asked fans to share their memories of the restaurant using the #FountainFinalCourse hashtag on Twitter and Instagram, making for sentimental browsing through marriage proposals, anniversaries, and other milestone events.
As a tribute, Michael Klein gathered stories from legendary opening chef Jean-Marie Lacroix and other industry stars who came up through the Fountain, as well as some anecdotes from Philly.com readers.
For the record, the actual final course ever served at the Fountain was this pastry course from chef Annalise Matinas:
Dark chocolate layer bar with cardamom ice cream, citrus curd, and pistachio biscotti.
Veteran server Jim Miller was with the restaurant for its entire run.
