Just days before the opening of a new Rockville restaurant, Chef Geoff’s owner Geoff Tracy tells Dining Bisnow he and his family are moving to New York.

Tracy, who’s lived in the Washington since 1991, explains that his wife Norah O’Donnell has a new job as co-host of CBS This Morning. “That’s an opportunity that as a family we just can’t give up,” he tells Y&H. “It’s just too big of a role.”

Tracy says he’ll stay in D.C. full time until January, at which point he plans to move his kids to the Big Apple. But don’t expect him to disappear: He’s still got six restaurants in the area with long-term leases and plans to keep his house here. Although he hasn’t figured out exactly how he’ll split his time between the two cities, he’s considering alternating weeks in each.

On a typical day, Tracy visits at least three of his restaurants, but he says he doesn’t have any official obligations. Much of the marketing and big-picture work he does now, he says he can do from afar. His brother Chris Tracy is in charge of day-to-day operations.

As far as whether he has his eye on opening a restaurant in New York? “I would never say no to anything,” Tracy says, adding that it’s a little outside his main plan, which is to open 10 restaurants all within 10 to 15 miles of each other.

Tracy assures Y&H he and his wife still consider themselves “D.C. people.”

What he’ll miss most about being here full-time? “I’m so used to not paying for dinner,” Tracy says. “I won’t be able to pull that off in a restaurant in New York.”

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story indicated that Chef Geoff’s in Rockville had already opened. It opens Sept. 12.

Photo courtesy Chef Geoff’s