At Rivoli in Berkeley, there have been some portobello mushroom fritters on the menu that were introduced by chef-owner Wendy Brucker back in the '90s that became a signature of the restaurant. They're so well loved by the regular clientele, in fact, that when new chef Michael Williams decided to quietly remove them from the menu (making them an off-menu item, unbeknownst to some), it triggered some major backlash. One frequent diner dashed off a livid email to Michael Bauer who, in turn, highlighted the conflict in a blog post today. The issue, he says, is "These dishes can be an albatross to a restaurant, but they also not only keep people coming back but help to define a restaurant."

Bauer reached out to Williams and learned that the kitchen will still make the portobello fritters on request, but they're not part of the "direction we're going, and we want people to come in and try the new things."

He noted that before the menu change, 20 to 30 percent of the diners on a given night ordered the fritters out of habit, and now that number is down to about 5 percent.

But what of other restaurants and their signatures? What would Zuni Cafe be without their chicken and bread salad? Or Marlowe without its burger, or Wayfare Tavern without its fried chicken?

Basically, all that chefs like Melissa Perello can do to escape those bacon beignets at Frances is to go off and open another restaurant, as she just did: Octavia, which you can step inside in these photos. The signature dish hasn't yet emerged there to confine her, but no doubt, it will.

Related: Exclusive: Chef Melissa Perello Takes Us Inside The New Frances Spinoff, Octavia