For the first time in nearly three decades, Thomas Keller is closing a restaurant.

The chef and restaurateur has decided to shutter Bouchon Beverly Hills at the end of 2017, bringing an end to his Los Angeles presence. The complex — which includes a restaurant, cafe and bakery — opened in 2009, as an equal business partnership with the city of Beverly Hills.

“None of us wanted to walk away from this partnership without giving it everything we had,” says Keller. “Nine years later, I think we've given it everything we've had, and the best thing to do is shake hands and terminate the lease and move on.”

For Keller, it’s the first time he’s closed a restaurant since the 1994 debut of the French Laundry catapulted a restaurant empire that now includes footholds in Yountville, New York, Las Vegas and until Dec. 31, Los Angeles.

“People always ask, 'why does a restaurant close?' There's never a single reason,” says Keller, who hasn’t had a restaurant fail since New York’s Rakel, which folded in 1991. After that, he came west to run Checkers in Los Angeles for a year before heading to Napa Valley.

“There are always 10 or 12 reasons.”

At Bouchon Beverly Hills, the reasons are primarily financial, and the operation continued to be cash negative. Keller says that three of the four primary revenue streams of the Bouchon business model — lunch service, the cafe and the bakery, which was the highest grossing bakery per square feet in the TKRG group — were strong, but dinner service was lacking in the Beverly Hills branch.

It spans 11,000 square feet and two stories. That second-floor restaurant location didn’t help matters, nor did the rise of downtown Los Angeles as a dining center. There were other factors — L.A.’s transit overhaul, the forthcoming Hudson Yards project — and it became apparent that it would be better to work with the city of Beverly Hills and shut down.

“Everyone’s walking away feeling some pain,” says Keller. “But with a complete understanding that this is the best thing for both of us.”

Paolo Lucchesi is the food editor of the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: plucchesi@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @lucchesi