Restaurants come and go, but in a tourist town known for food, professional kitchens don't stay dark for long.

Think of it as musical chairs with locales, names, chefs, cuisine, ownership and styles.

"For every restaurant that goes out, there are three people looking to put something else in," said Philip Gudwin, who has owned two now-restaurant-worthy buildings at the southeast corner of Guadalupe Street and Montezuma Avenue for nearly 30 years.

Gudwin's larger building, formerly the site of WilLee's Blues Bar, then Corazón, had been vacant for the final months of last year. But in January, Philippe Muller opened the Swiss Bakery in part of the building.

Muller worked for Santa Fe's original Swiss Bakery from 1979 to 1987, when it was located nearby on Guadalupe Street in the space occupied since last spring by the Whole Hog Cafe, and was owned by Gerard Chaney, like Muller a native of French-speaking Switzerland, now retired in New York City.

Muller said he returned to Lausanne, Switzerland, to help run his father's bakery, but returned to Santa Fe 11 years ago to work as an executive pastry chef at Las Campanas and Bishop's Lodge, then as a real-estate agent.

The Swiss Bakery is open for breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea through 4 p.m., but Muller hopes to expand into the outdoor patio area, which seats 30 to 40, this summer and to begin serving into the evening, if and when he obtains a beer and wine license.

Gudwin's smaller building next door, formerly Max's Restaurant, has been vacant since last month when its owner and chief chef, Max Renteria, left to concentrate on her other place, Tomme Restaurant at 229 Galisteo St., formerly the site of Louie's Corner Cafe.

"She got a little overextended and one of them had to go, and it was Max's, which I'm a little sorry about," Gudwin said. "But somebody else will pick it up." He said the previous rent was $2,300 a month.

One of Santa Fe's latest eateries to go dark was Amavi, which closed at the end of last year with plans to reopen in February. However, it remained closed and is now reportedly ready to reopen under a new name.

For nearly 40 years, under at least three names -- the Periscope, Julian's and Amavi -- the space at 221 Shelby St. has had the reputation as one of the city's most romantic downtown restaurants, serving Northern Italian cuisine.

Joseph Pisacane, who continues to own the property, opened it as the Periscope in the 1970s. In 1989, Wayne Gustafson and his wife moved their existing Julian's Restaurant from Telluride, Colo., into the space.

In 2007, Thomas Odai took over from Gustafson, after agreeing to pay him $310,000 over three years, and renamed the place Amavi. Last summer, Gustafson sued Odai, claiming he had quit paying on the note almost a year early and owed some $200,000. The two reached an undisclosed settlement late last year.

Odai opened the Catamount Bar and Grill at 125 E. Water St. in 1995, then closed it down in 2010 and last summer opened Junction Bar and Grille at 520 S. Guadalupe St. -- formerly the site of the Railyard Restaurant.

Odai, Gustafson and Pisacane did not respond to messages seeking comment about the changes at the Shelby Street site, but a man working in the building Thursday said that the closure was not directly connected to the court settlement. The man, who did not want to be identified, said Pisacane has found someone to take over the space by April.

The Plaza Café, located in the city's historic center, has remained dark for almost a year and a half -- ever since early September 2010, when garlic butter left over a pilot light caused a fire to break out early one morning.

The Razatos family, who has owned the Plaza Café since 1947, found themselves overwhelmed by the fire. They had opened their Plaza Café Southside in early 2008 in the front of the Quality Inn Hotel, then moved it the next year to a location at 3466 Zafarano Drive, just across from the Regal Cinema.

A few months before the Plaza Café fire broke out, brothers Andy and Daniel Razatos also had taken over the Cowden Cafe on the third floor of the New Mexico History Museum. But by April last year, they turned over the lease on the Cowden Cafe to Richard Derwostyp.

During part of last year, the Plaza Café was used as a filming site for the feature movie Odd Thomas, a Dean Koontz story about a short-order cook who sees ghosts. According to a note on the front door of the space at 54 Lincoln Ave., the Razatos family had hoped to reopen their original restaurant by December but have experienced "unexpected delays" and aren't likely to reopen until April.

Some of the other changes in the city restaurant industry include:

• Le Chantilly Café recently opened in Garrett's Desert Inn, 311 Old Santa Fe Trail. The space previously housed a host of other cafes, most recently Ze French Bistro.

• The Pecos Trail Cafe opened this week in the Pecos Trail Inn, 2239 Old Pecos Trail. The space previously housed a host of cafes, including Pepper's, Fresh Pepper's, Realburger and a nightclub called Chilaca's, but most recently it had been home to El Milagro Restaurant. That eatery remains open at its original Zafarano Drive location.

• The Dish n' Spoon, previously on Old Santa Fe Trail, this week reopened in the Mirador Gallery, 616 Canyon Road, in the site of the former Canyon Hideout Cafe.

Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com.