Breakups: Restaurant Edition

Steve Levine, the owner of Wilshire in Santa Monica, Calif., announced today that Executive Chef Andrew Kirschner is leaving the restaurant (you may remember him from The Next Iron Chef). Levine commented on the split through his publicist Jannis Swerman, "We've enjoyed a great run for the past four years and I wish Andrew the best in his own venture."

General manager, Nick Fielding will take the helm at Wilshire during the transition. This announcement follows a slew of other restaurant breakups in the past month, several seemingly a little more acrimonious — take a look. 

Feb. 16th: Ryan Poli moves on from Perennial in Chicago to a new Latin-inspired restaurant, Tavernita.

Feb. 15th: Michael Ayoub leaves to Fornino Park Slope.

Feb. 15th: Jeremy Fox leaves the Tyler Florence Restaurant Group after just four months of collaboration. 

Feb. 4th: Jason Neroni leaves his role as Executive Chef at Saucebox in Portland, Ore.

Jan. 24th: Lotus of Siam's owners abandon their New York location soon after opening.

Jan. 12th: Brian Enyart moves on from Rick Bayless's Topolobampo. 

Jan. 10th: Michael White and Chris Cannon officially split up.

The Daily Byte is a regular column dedicated to covering interesting food news and trends across the country. Click here for previous columns.