Buying an established restaurant bears some similarities to becoming a second spouse. It can be "tricky," conceded Andrew Kohn, who, with his (first and only) husband, Don Jones, purchased the 22-year-old Michael's on the Hill in Waterbury Center for $1.2 million in September. "You obviously live with the reputation of those who came before you."

In the case of Michael's — founded in 2002 by Swiss chef Michael Kloeti and his wife, Laura, who served as general manager — Kohn and Jones stepped into the long-standing relationship between the European-accented farmhouse restaurant and its devoted clientele, as well as its staff. Not unlike longtime friends and family members affected by a marital transition, each group had reactions to the change.

A business sale is not nearly as serious as the dissolution of a marriage, but people can get pretty passionate about their favorite restaurant. Heaven forbid, for example, that Michael's crisp-crusted and bountifully crabby Maine crab cake appetizer ($18) or the caveman-huge pork shank nestled in a rich puddle of polenta with vinegary braised greens ($44) should vanish from the menu.

Fans can rest easy that the crab cake and pork shank aren't going anywhere, nor are the graciously professional service and the elegant yet welcoming ambience for which Michael's is known. A recent Saturday evening meal demonstrated that the restaurant remains a destination for thoughtfully composed plates showcasing classic European technique in an intimate setting. A soundtrack featuring the likes of Frank Sinatra and Billie Holiday underscored the classy, timeless experience.

My husband, Mark, and I were seated at one of the linen-draped tables lining the four-season porch. Around us, couples of varied ages and sartorial choices, from gold sequins to ski sweaters, murmured companionably as they clinked glasses of wine and shared forkfuls of truffled mushroom gnocchi ($34) or mulled wine-poached pear with chestnut cream ($13).

As Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong crooned, "It's very clear our love is here to stay," it was also clear how Michael's has landed on several national lists of most romantic restaurants. A $100 Valentine's Day tasting menu, which might start with fennel and oyster bisque and conclude with chocolate truffle torte and espresso ice cream, quickly sold out.

One couple that will not be dining at Michael's on February 14 are the restaurant owners.

Kohn, 44, is the hands-on restaurateur while Jones, 51, takes the lead on running the Brass Lantern Inn in Stowe, which they bought shortly after moving to Vermont from Columbus, Ohio, in summer 2022 with their two children, now ages 8 and 10. Kohn also works at Stowe's Mt. Mansfield Academy as director of marketing and communications.

The pair have been together for 17 years and were married as soon as they were legally able to, in 2015.

"We used to do things on Valentine's Day," Kohn said, noting that having two kids and two businesses requires juggling priorities. Though, when it comes to romantic gestures, he quipped, "My husband is as straight as a gay man can be. I have to remind him to send flowers."

The family will likely order in sushi and celebrate in a low-key way. Valentine's Day, Kohn said, is "just a good reminder to tell the people around you that you appreciate them. It's more about spending time with somebody ... about stopping for a second to kind of breathe."

Time to breathe has become scarce since Kohn took on the restaurant. The Vermont Law School graduate had not previously worked in the field, so he enrolled in a Cornell University online restaurant management course. Kohn credited Michael's veteran industry professionals, including executive chef Jeff Thibeault, general manager Eric Griffin, and sommelier and front-of-house manager Elizabeth Cahill, for easing the transition. Griffin will leave this month, and Bruce Ronty will join the team from Portland, Maine, bringing 30 years of food and beverage management experience.

Cahill greeted and seated my husband and me on our recent visit. If I'd known her wine background, which includes 14 years as a sommelier at the Michelin-starred Auberge du Soleil in Napa Valley, I'd have asked for her counsel, although our server proved more than capable of advising us on glasses to pair with our main courses.

We started with cocktails from the bar, located in the heart of the restaurant. It had been closed for seating since the pandemic, but Kohn recently reopened it and repainted the walls in a milky coffee shade that Benjamin Moore calls maple syrup. (It's unclear if anyone at the paint company has ever seen maple syrup.)

There was just the right touch of the golden elixir in my Barr Hill Tom Cat gin maple sour ($18), which was pleasantly more sour than sweet. My husband slowly sipped his bourbon-forward black cherry old-fashioned ($18).

Michael's currently offers two prix fixe options featuring a few paired choices of appetizers and mains from the à la carte menu and the diner's pick of dessert. Distracted by my cocktail, I didn't do the math and chose the $84 platinum prix fixe because it included two dishes I was leaning toward. Be forewarned that the prix fixe does not deliver a price break over ordering the same individual dishes. (Kohn said a new spring prix fixe menu will likely feature specials not available à la carte.)

There is, however, a delicious amuse-bouche — or, as the menu calls it, a "chef's taste of the evening" — for all guests sharing the table with any diner who orders prix fixe. The evening we dined, it was a compellingly crunchy, molten-centered smoked cheddar fritter served on a harissa aioli that just barely prickled with heat.

For my appetizer course, the famous crab cake lived up to its reputation with a substantial cylinder of golden-crusted pure crab complemented by bitter endive and pink grapefruit. My husband's watercress salad ($16) was studded liberally with Jasper Hill Farm's Bayley Hazen Blue cheese and Marcona almonds and crowned with a rosette of fried pancetta. The quince dressing could have used a touch more acid, but overall it was a delightful tumble of sharp, crunchy, salty and sweet in each mouthful.

The prix fixe menu suggests wine pairings for each dish — new since Kohn and Jones bought the restaurant. With my butter-braised lobster, the recommendation was a Ramey Wine Cellars 2021 Russian River Valley chardonnay ($19/glass). I mentioned to our server that I'm a little leery of California chardonnays, which can be more oaky and buttery than I prefer. He offered a taste of the Ramey or, alternatively, the unoaked Chateau Vitallis Chardonnay 2021 Mâcon-Fuissé ($15/glass). I selected the latter, but he also brought me the taste of the California wine, which, it turned out, I could have happily quaffed.

I did find the crisp and more citrusy French wine a good balance with the very rich and buttery lobster ($53). The tail was perfectly cooked and served in the shell, topped with two plump, shell-free claws of crustacean meat. The deconstructed bouillabaisse featured sweet stewed tomatoes; crisp, thin slices of fennel; and a swoop of creamy, saffron-imbued rouille sauce.

To go with Mark's choice of maple-glazed pork shank, the server suggested Giovanni Rosso Langhe Nebbiolo 2020 Piedmont ($16/glass), which stood up nicely to the meaty main. The shank boasted a crusty, sweet exterior and fell from its bones in tender hunks; it could easily have fed two. But for me, the stars of that dish were the creamy polenta enriched with mellow garlic confit and the red wine- and red vinegar-braised kale. I could have eaten a bowlful of just that combination.

By contrast, we found that the desserts were not on par with the rest of the meal. I almost catapulted a spoonful of too-firm and a touch too-cinnamony panna cotta ($13) at Mark while trying to extract it from its little pot. The simple dessert is one of my favorites, but it must be executed flawlessly to achieve the right consistency.

My sweet tooth tends more toward desserts kissed with salty or tart notes, so I was intrigued by the cheddar and apple crostata ($13) with honey cream and apple cider reduction. The flavors played well together, but the unexpectedly abundant, soft, puffy dough was unlike any crostata I'd ever eaten. The dish exuded less "restaurant elegance" and more "Grandma's kitchen."

Kohn acknowledged that polishing the dessert menu is on the to-do list, along with building a recently launched membership wine club that will leverage Cahill's skill set and bring hard-to-find wines to the state. He and the team will continue to make incremental changes, he said, while working to stay true to the essence of Michael's.

Asked if his relationship with the restaurant was still in its honeymoon period, Kohn considered for a moment. "We're at that period where you're thinking about maybe moving in together, like you're committed and you still see the great stuff, but reality is there as well," he said. "It's like, OK, let's really do this."