Jean-Georges is still a four-star restaurant. That is all. Thank you for your time.

On second thought, there may be a little more to say. Because great restaurants can fade fast, especially these days, and Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s serene flagship serves a city vastly different from the one it set out to dazzle and seduce 17 years ago last month. Back then, Jean-Georges was a radical reimagining of the grand style of French dining, “an entirely new kind of four-star restaurant,” as Ruth Reichl put it in her review for The New York Times.

Jean-Georges didn’t just blow the dust off the candelabra; it tossed them out. In a room that was all right angles and Manhattan energy, men and women servers (a rarity in formal restaurants then) circulated with unfussy, level, American poise. Most of all there was the brilliant cooking, which was lighter, brighter and more embracing of other cultures than French food had any right to be.

What we want from restaurants is changing, though, along with our notions of luxury. The kind of comfort Jean-Georges excels at providing makes some diners distinctly uncomfortable. Chefs who couldn’t peel a banana when Jean-Georges Vongerichten got his first four-star review (for Lafayette, in 1988) now run adventurous, unluxurious dining rooms where people come for the journey and where the thrill of the ride is more important than the condition of the shock absorbers.