An iconic fixture of Oakland's Piedmont Avenue since 1975, Bay Wolf is now set to close right after celebrating its 40th Anniversary this summer, as Inside Scoop is reporting. The restaurant is of course of the same era as Chez Panisse, having opened just three years after it, and much like Alice Waters' Berkeley restaurant it was launched by people without formal culinary training and has been at the forefront of many of California's food trends.

75-year-old chef-owner Michael Wild, who hasn't been much in the kitchen since the 1980s but who still writes menus with chef Louis Le Gassic, has been contemplating retirement for a couple of years now — and rumors flew via the Inside Scoop four years ago, just after he celebrated the restaurant's 35th anniversary, that the place might be calling it quits. But now it's for real, and Wild says he'll be in the restaurant every day until the August 30th anniversary/closing party, but after that, "I have a lot of travel plans."

In the meantime, you've got two months to get back there, or go for the first time, to dine on their deck, or to taste their famed Caesar salad or duck liver flan.

Bay Wolf - 3853 Piedmont Avenue, Oakland - 510-655-6004