After 12 years, twosurveys of the 100 best restaurants in New York City and one viral review of a certain establishment in Flavortown, Pete Wells has decided to move on from his role as the restaurant critic for The Times.

Pete, who is sharing the news with readers this morning, will file a few more reviews before he concludes his run as critic in early August. Thankfully, he'll remain with us here in the newsroom beyond that, with more details to come soon.

Pete became the restaurant critic in 2012, after serving as the editor of what was known as the Dining section since 2006. As a critic, Pete has been reliably brilliant, filing reviews of restaurants across the city in which the originality and breadth of his insights were matched only by the crystalline precision and wit of his prose. A great Wellsian one-liner is about as delicious as they come.

Everyone knows Pete is a wonderful writer. He is also deeply knowledgeable, voracious in his curiosity and fiercely independent. He kept raising the bar on his own work, undertaking his most ambitious project to date in the last few years: sampling countless New York restaurants to create a list of the 100 best, a remarkable portrait of the city through its food. Then, after doing it for his first list, he did it all over again, revisiting all 100 restaurants and then some for an updated 2024 version.

These are big shoes to fill. The search for our next restaurant critic will begin soon.

In the meantime, Melissa Clark and Priya Krishna will step in as interim critics in New York, alternating as they file both restaurant reviews and critic's notebooks. Because Priya and Melissa are well known from their videos and public appearances, maintaining our longstanding tradition of visiting restaurants anonymously won't be easy. But they'll try to uphold it when they dine at restaurants, and they'll adhere to all of The Times's ethical standards for criticism, including our policy of not accepting free meals. And in Los Angeles, Tejal Rao will continue to write about restaurants as part of her role as a food critic at large.

Please join us in congratulating Pete on an extraordinary run.