Dino Maggi has been employed at Le Coq au Vin for more than 20 years. Through two owners. But he might take exception with that phrasing.

“I don’t really work here,” Maggi tells me. “I take care of old-school Orlando. All my guests are longtime friends, they’re not really customers.”

So, it was heart-crushing, he said, when he learned that the venerable restaurant, which has served French fare in Orlando since 1976, was shuttering for good.

Chef/owner Reimund Pitz, who took the helm from Le Coq’s French-born owner/founder Louis Perrotte in 2008, delivered the news on Saturday night.

The sale of the property was made official the day before.

“It was one of the toughest things my wife and I had to do in regards to business,” Pitz said. “…when the last meal went out, I told everyone.”

Pitz and his wife Sandy tried hard to perpetuate the fire of the restaurant’s heydey, but doing so in the radically different post-COVID landscape proved too challenging.

“[Louis] basically handed a golden egg to us,” said Pitz, noting their gratitude. Perrotte’s 27-year run provided solid momentum for the next decade-plus.

The restaurant enjoyed acclaim from the city’s top restaurant scribes and the devotion of generations of patrons. Pitz joined Perrotte in the Orlando Sentinel’s Culinary Hall of Fame in 2012.

But 2020’s coronavirus hammer hit Le Coq as hard as other restaurants.

“It changed the hospitality industry forever,” said Pitz.

General manager Sarah Titzer, whose tenure at the restaurant had two eras — she worked there as a hostess from 2008-2010, returning in 2017 as management — says before the pandemic, a Saturday night saw covers north of 100.

“At our best after COVID, we were in the 60s,” she said. “We recovered — we did a lot of things to get business in —  but I think we all knew that we weren’t recovering as well as we wanted to.

“Bittersweet” was a word she used, as did Pitz in a post on Scott Joseph’s Orlando Restaurant Guide, which broke the news of the closing on Monday.

“I’m not ready to retire,” said Pitz, who is active in the culinary community. A past president of the American Culinary Federation, he will be sworn in as the vice chairman of the American Academy of Chefs in July.

There are other plans in the works, as well, including a continuation of catering services. Cooking classes, introduced as a revenue generator post-pandemic, have also been popular.

They tried, he said, but steep price hikes, an inconsistent supply chain, the rising cost of labor and the overall shortage of workers, became insurmountable.

“My No. 1 rule always is pay your mortgage and pay your employees,” said Pitz. Both he and his wife are in their 60s. “There were some months we didn’t take a check. Every week it was money from our savings. You just can’t run a business like that. ”

Rising costs could no longer be passed on to customers and Le Coq, he said, has a reputation for high-quality products at reasonable prices.

“That’s one of the reasons we’ve never spent a dollar on marketing. It’s a tribute to the entire team here. And all of them are like family to us. It was a tough decision, but ultimately, a decision we had to make.”

Early Tuesday, as Pitz removed the restaurant’s many awards from the walls, preparing the space for one last meal during which staffers would gather and toast their time there, Facebook lit up with mixed reactions over the closing.

“Super sad to read this! Wishing the owners well in whatever they do next!” said one commenter.

“So sad,” wrote another. “Yes, it was out-of-date and off trend, but the food was always great there. Not sure where else you’ll find that old school French country cooking (well, and a damn good schnitzel).”

“Dang, their chocolate soufflé (with Bailey’s) was the best dessert in town.”

Some lamented never making it in for a meal, while others took issue with the way the staff was notified.

“One has to wonder, in this age of inflation and soaring living expenses and housing costs, why this small business owner chose to give his employees no warning…? I hope that his employees received some sort of severance.”

“This is a ma and pa restaurant with owners who were literally taking money out of their savings to keep the place open,” another responded.

Maggi, who will be keeping a piece of stained glass from his iconic second home, says that though the news was devastating, it was not a surprise.

“This was an old restaurant and it was taken care of by two great chefs, but everything comes to an end. It was written on the wall.”

Longtime members of Orlando’s culinary scene were somber about the closing of not only one of the city’s oldest long-running restaurants, but the loss of a foundational style that seems in decline.

“There is a great difference between brasserie and French cafe food and what Le Coq au Vin was doing — i.e.,  still serving coq au vin,” said Tim Keating. Now retired, Keating’s resume includes time at the helm of Walt Disney World’s Flying Fish Cafe. Later, he ran the critically acclaimed Urbain 40 in Doctor Phillips. During his Disney tenure, Keating worked alongside esteemed French chef Paul Bocuse.

“This is the type of cooking I learned from. And it is almost a lost art anymore. Le Coq au Vin will be greatly missed.”

Pitz, who broke down gently amid reflection at times, thanked the people of Central Florida for supporting the restaurant throughout the decades and for becoming his friends.

“I love taking care of people,” he said. “And I will cherish this experience for the rest of my life.”

READ MORE: Best French: 2023 Orlando Sentinel Foodie Awards

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