The year is 2007. Food-world heavyweights flock to gritty Le Pigeon for send-ups of French food and foie gras by 25-year-old gastrobasher Gabriel Rucker as Metallica blazes. Flash to 2024. Crosby, Stills & Nash is on the sound system, and sober chef-dad Rucker’s biggest brag is coaching Little League. The heaviest metal in the house is Rucker’s two James Beard awards. Le Pigeon is now middle age: low-key cool, quasi-elegant, with nothing to prove, and tasting menus only, meat or meat-free but otherwise impossible to pigeonhole, each dish a different planet. Chatty, personable chef Dana Francisco, Rucker’s right hand, holds the fort most nights. The big revelation? The vegetarian menu. Who would have thought that Rucker could put squash and black trumpet mushrooms on the same pedestal as braised pig feet? The wine list from Andy Fortgang, one of the city’s great palates, remains outstanding. Zero-proof cocktails are daring, but the foie gras Coke float is pure evil genius.