Last night on Seattle Weekly’s Voracious blog, popular restaurant critic Jonathan Kauffman announced that he would be leaving Seattle to return to San Francisco, where he worked previously as a chef and then writer, to join the food staff at San Francisco Weekly.

In his time in Seattle, Kauffman has distinguished himself by remaining fastidiously anonymous, eschewing media events and appearances in order to maintain a rigid objectivity that has served his reviews well. (Seattle Met’s Kathryn Robinson also reviews anonymously.) Kauffman wrote up all the fancy top 10 places, of course, but in the tradition of Ruth Reichl and LA Weekly’s Jonathan Gold, he’s also looked outside city limits to scour our outer environs for the best Korean bbq and five-alarm-spicy Sichuan dishes. He’s also developed into a sharp and funny writer, and his honest, fair, and well-researched observations have made him a refreshing and respected voice in the local food media.

Just because we never met him doesn’t mean we won’t miss him.