There are hoteliers and then there are people who run hotels. And there is a difference: style, quality, commitment, maybe a little obsessiveness. No, make that a lot.

We're not exactly awash in hoteliers here on the relaxed West Coast. It's a lost art, getting loster by the minute. Still, I can think of a couple: Eleni Skalbania, naturally, and Ruy Paes-Braga. Could think of a couple; the total is diminishing-Ruy Paes-Braga has left the building.

How nice for him: he gets to go back to his roots, as general manager of the Ritz Four Seasons, Lisbon, in his homeland Portugal. What do the rest of us get? A great gaping hole in the city's hospitality scene.

It is no secret that Paes-Braga was-is-the greatest hotelier in town, past, present, and probably for a good ways into the future; also, a consummate professional, a stickler for detail, and a continental charmer whom most women found-find-irresistible with his elegant demeanour and whom most men tried-try-to emulate when nobody's looking.

He's a fanatic for fine food and has a wine palate to maybe even match that of Sid Cross. An Old World attitude toward standards of service, a New World approach to innovation and creativity-the list could go on for another page. The thing is, he pretty well single-handedly built our local Four Seasons into the excellent hotel-and restaurant, that'd be Chartwell-it is today.

It's been 25 years since he arrived to create a whole new level of eating experience, taking it from the afterthought "Oh, we'll just eat in the hotel tonight" attitude of visitors to a pinnacle of destination dining.

Mentoring was very much his methodology, recognizing talent and skill-be it in the kitchen, the office, or the front desk-encouraging it, and propelling it along a career path. He had the star politician's knack for surrounding himself with talented, creative, and committed people. He let them expand to fulfill their potential.

It did the trick. And after he won us all over with his commitment to great food and drink and delightful surroundings, they did what they always do: catapulted him away, to Ottawa and then Toronto.

No, they just bungeed him; he pulled himself right back in 1989 and, so far as anyone knew, determined to stay.

Things change. Maybe the fact the Portuguese government named him a Commander of the Order of Merit just a couple of years ago gave him a certain wistful desire to spend a bit more time in his native land.

He will be remembered here for many things, but he is perhaps best known for his institution of winemaker dinners at the Four Seasons many years ago. They always sold out. And they always followed a pattern (don't fix it if it isn't broken): a tutored tasting with the winemaker before the meal and then a magnificent multicourse dinner, usually in Chartwell, where the wines were paired with a special menu by the executive chef and brigade. Any wine talk that followed happened at your table between you and your guests. And that's the way it should be. A Four Seasons winemaker dinner was many things-an exploration of interesting wines and often surprising wine-food matches, a social high point focused on the palate, a relaxed but elegant dinner experience-but it was never pedantic or dull.

Of course they will send a replacement out from corporate HQ. (In the short term, it's Stefan Simkovics, who's homeless while they build his Beijing Four Seasons.) Whoever it is will have a challenge ahead. Not only did-does-Paes-Braga have all those excellent industry attributes, he also knew-knows-everybody in town. You don't learn that kind of connectedness by being parachuted in from Chicago to fill a position.

We wish Paes-Braga well in Portugal, of course; it was-is-his homeland. We will miss him mightily. He did say he would likely be back in Vancouver in a few years, when the time comes to retire.

Perhaps by that time I will have saved enough money to indulge in that ultimate fantasy: open my own hotel and restaurant. Ruy Paes-Braga will be the man. Is the man! Adeus, Ruy, and obrigado.