Eli's Kitchen, the tiny, homey and wildly popular Market Street restaurant run by celebrity chef Eli Dunn, is closing its doors. But Mr. Dunn, who rose to culinary fame after winning the Food Network's Chopped cooking show two years ago, said Sunday morning that he is excited to start another chapter in his life.

"There's always a silver lining and there's definitely one here," said Mr. Dunn, who had been considering selling the restaurant for months. "I struggled with taking the restaurant away from the community and the people who love Eli's Kitchen. It took me a while to get to that point, but once I did I was surprised at how much conviction I had. It was the right thing to do."

Mr. Dunn has reached a deal with Sam Duling and his fiancee Joanna, who will take over the business. They plan to open some time early in 2021, serving Mr. Duling's brand of Southern comfort food with a creative, local twist. A name for the new establishment has not yet been announced.

"He's great," Mr. Dunn said of Sam. "And Joanna is a great front of the house person. She's incredible; she has what Katie Dickson has at Bywater, a lovely personality and is just a pleasure."

For Mr. Dunn, cooking has always been a passion. His appearances on the Chopped show elevated his career but as his notoriety skyrocketed, the success ironically took him farther away from an activity he had loved since he was a kid. At its peak before the pandemic, Eli's staff was up to more than 30 people. Running such a busy operation, he said, "I lost touch with what I love about cooking."

Even prior to the pandemic's onset, he was thinking about pivoting, and spent a lot of time considering how to step away from the restaurant's day to day operations.

When Eli's was forced to close in March and April, "I was already on the search for a head chef. My goal last winter was to hand over operational control and be the owner; I wanted to work on the business end of it. I was really going to push this past year and this was going to be my time to hand over control."

During the spring shutdown, Mr. Duling, the former head chef at Nick's on Westminster in Providence, lost his job, and soon after was interviewed for the head chef position at Eli's. In Sam, Mr. Dunn said, Eli's had found "a perfect fit for what I was looking for."

Mr. Duling started at Eli's in May. But with restrictions limiting the number of people who could dine at the small restaurant, "there wasn't enough work for all of us."

Right around that time, serendipity stepped in. An old friend called in a panic, asking if Chef Eli could help after a caterer canceled on her wedding out of the blue.

Ever since the Food Network appearances, Mr. Dunn had fielded regular calls from folks who needed catering, or wanted private chef services and the like. "I never had the bandwidth to do it, but now I had all this time on my hands so I said yes. It was one of those moments where if I had said 'No,' who knows what would have happened?"

As it was, that small catering gig lifted his spirits and re-connected him with the love of cooking.

"All of a sudden I was doing that again," he said. "I had a lot of fun."

Soon after, a photographer he knows hired him for her brother's wedding. Word spread quickly, and almost before he knew it the offers poured in.

"Once people found out you could have Chef Eli come to your house, that was it," he said. "I was creating different menus every time; it was great."

Over the summer, he probably did 25 to 30 small events, from weddings to bat mitzvahs, anniversaries and small dinner parties. And he joined Hope & Main, adding virtual cooking classes, fund-raisers and other private events to his schedule. He also found more free time than he'd had time in years, and felt liberated — "I spent a lot of time on the golf course," the 13-handicapper said. It seemed like a good career pivot to concentrate on that aspect of the business.

Talking with Sam about it one day, "I jokingly said to him, 'Maybe you should open a restaurant here.'"

"'That's not a bad idea,' he said."

Over the summer and fall, Chef Eli went back and forth with Sam and Joanna, finalizing the details of the restaurant's sale.

He first announced Eli's sale Saturday on Instagram, and said it has been heartening to see the love people had for Eli's pour out through messages, texts and calls. And while the pandemic has been a tragedy for so many of his colleagues in the industry, he said he has taken away many positives from the changes this year has wrought. It has forced him to examine his goals and his loves, and prioritize. Along with a separation this year from his wife Pam, which he also said is a positive for both of them, he could never have imagined that the year would play out as it has.

"It's been incredibly tragic but for me, also liberating," he said. "I've been able to look at the totality of my life, and do what feels right."

This does, he said.