• Ben Deflorio
• Chip and Sarah Natvig

After more than a decade, chef-owner Sarah Natvig is closing her farm-to-table restaurant, Black Krim Tavern, on Randolph's Merchants Row. She has accepted a position as culinary arts instructor in Randolph Technical Career Center's culinary arts and hospitality management program.

The last day of dining at Black Krim will be July 17. Natvig is not selling the restaurant's name, she said, but is in preliminary discussions with "someone who may be taking over the space."

In October 2020, Natvig moved her restaurant two doors down to 29 Merchants Row, a larger space that allowed for more seating under pandemic capacity restrictions. Her husband, farmer Chip Natvig of Pebble Brook Farm in Braintree, relocated his farm store there and began selling grocery items from other farms and food producers, as well as fresh seafood. His farm store will move back to Braintree.

The teaching opportunity "came out of the blue," Natvig said. "I wasn't looking." However, she said, the career change dovetailed with her thinking about her professional and personal future. "This past year has been so rugged," Natvig said. "We've all learned so much from it."

Over the past several years, Natvig said, she has enjoyed coaching middle school and high school soccer and seeing youngsters build life skills. "Taking my current job in restaurants and hospitality and working with high school students in my hometown — it's just perfect," she said.

The New England Culinary Institute graduate and lifetime culinary professional also wants to spend more time with her family, including the couple's 14-year-old daughter. Leaving a restaurant work schedule for an academic one, Natvig said, is "literally a game changer."