There have been few harder seats to grab in the past few weeks than a cozy table inside Tersiguel’s. The restaurant, a mainstay of old Ellicott City for 50 years, will serve its last meal this weekend, and local residents have been clamoring to pay their respects to a bastion of classic French cuisine.

Despite the competition for reservations, diner Brian Schwenk has visited twice in recent months. Tersiguel’s has been one of his favorite spots for more than 30 years, he said, its staff like extended family.

Those who can’t get tables have made phone calls. “I had a call yesterday, and the lady was just thanking us for being part of her family and her community,” said chef and owner Michel Tersiguel, whose parents opened the restaurant as Chez Fernand in 1975. “We were a big part of a lot of people’s stories.”

The historic building that was once the home of Ellicott City’s first mayor won’t be empty for long. As early as March, the space will become the new location of River House Pizza Co., whose owner, Nathan Sowers, previously worked as a baker for Tersiguel’s.

Knowledge that Sowers is taking over gives comfort to Ellicott City residents like Schwenk, who feel more assured that the restaurant’s new owner will have a similarly long run.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if he has a 50-year anniversary,” Schwenk said.

Still, it’s the end of an era. For decades, Tersiguel’s was a throwback to an earlier era of American dining when the majority of high-end restaurants were French. When Michel Tersiguel took the reins from his parents, Fernand and Odette, who hailed from Brittany, France, he helped bring the restaurant into the 21st century, incorporating techniques learned while working in France and the Napa Valley.

Michel was just a shy 11-year-old when he began helping his parents at work, which gave him confidence and a sense of belonging — not to mention money in his pocket. At home, he was an only child; at work, he felt part of a brotherhood.

Looking to expand his skills beyond what his parents taught him, Michel later graduated from the Culinary Institute of America. He eventually moved to France, where he fully embraced the life of a cook and the 14-hour days that came with it.

Back in Howard County, Chez Fernand closed in 1984 following a devastating fire. Fernand and Odette relocated their restaurant to downtown Baltimore, moving back to Main Street in 1990. Michel was in and out of the family restaurant before returning for good in 1997.

That was the same year Katie Harris, then 14, started working at the restaurant’s coat check. “It was always a party,” she reminisced. There were events with live music and can-can dancers at the tables, Christmas parties for the staff, the customer who sabered a Champagne bottle and multiple engagements. “I’m not sure who’s more nervous, the servers or the gentlemen [proposing],” Harris said. Throughout it all was Fernand, the larger-than-life figure at the restaurant’s gravitational center. He dazzled diners with his tableside service, carving chateaubriands and flambéing crepes suzette.

“He was the guy at the front door greeting everybody, making sure everybody was having a good time,” Schwenk said of Fernand, who died in 2020. “His son carried on that tradition after he passed.”

Behind all the magic was a ton of work. Life at Tersiguel’s taught Harris to cram more into her days than she ever thought possible, including working while attending college and playing sports. Today, she’s a mom of four and has another full-time job outside the restaurant, but still works at the French eatery a few nights a week just because she enjoys it.

Harris also introduced Michel to her cousin, Angie, his now-wife. The couple has two teenaged sons, neither of which “have any interest in the restaurant business at this point,” Michel said.

Following his own father’s retirement in 2006, Michel navigated the ever-changing dining landscape, including multiple floods that devastated downtown Ellicott City, the COVID pandemic and, more recently, tariffs and the soaring cost of doing business. He transitioned Tersiguel’s from an a la carte menu to a six-course, prix fixe chef’s tasting menu that changes each week.

After decades of hard work and seeing to his customers’ needs, Michel is ready to take care of himself for a change. He has ignored his health for years amid the long hours, he said, and hopes to drop a few pounds. Above all, he wants to be there for his sons.

It’s a balancing act the building’s new owner knows something about. For years, Sowers juggled the life of a baker with that of a parent, bringing his children to Tersiguel’s after school to eat a family meal with the rest of the staff.

“I used to feel so guilty about it, that I had to make them come in to work with me,” Sowers said. “And now they’re like, ‘Oh, that was so awesome.’”

And the food, of course, was incredible.