After five years as the lead restaurant reviewer of the New York Times, Frank Bruni is hanging up his napkin, the newspaper announced today.

As the restaurant critic at one of the nation's preeminent publications, in the last five years, Bruni has been arguably the most influential food writer in America, catapulting restaurants like Napa's Ubuntu to fame while sending others, like Jeffrey Chodorow's Kobe Club, to a controversial early grave. But come August — around the same time that his new food memoir gets published — he will step down from his position.

Despite the fact that his reviews have ignited as many haters as supporters, I'll miss Bruni's poignant and often hilarious reviews — although I am looking forward to learning more about him in Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater. Are you disappointed to see Bruni join the likes of former critics Craig Claiborne, Mimi Sheraton, Bryan Miller, and Ruth Reichl? Who do you think should be his successor?

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