LACROSSE, Wis. —The elegant Waterfront Restaurant and Tavern will seat its last diners in mid-March. The restaurant has been a fixture for almost 20 years in the Weber insurance complex within walking distance of major hotels and LaCrosse Center arenas. It featured in-season patio seating overlooking the Mississippi. In an announcement, the Don Weber family, which owns the Waterfront, said:

“This industry isn’t for the faint of heart. Those who are in it know this all too well. It’s beautiful, brutal, exhausting, exhilarating –—and it asks everything of you. After a long run, stepping away is not easy, but it feels honest.”

Weber, who built a fortune servicing government insurance contracts, is a major LaCrosse philanthropist who dabbled in sidelines. At age 77 he is stepping back. In December he sold the classy Charmant Hotel. Earlier he shuttered one of his imaginative ventures — a quirky retro-styled meat shop called Schuby’s Neighborhood Butcher. This year he also e sold his Weber Springs lodge across the river near LaCrescent for $10 million, the largest residential transaction in Winona County history.