New Yorkers like to be first in a new restaurant, which makes it challenging for existing restaurants to grab the spotlight. It also means we sometimes forget the city’s classics. This fall, Gramercy Tavern and Gilt both have new chefs, making the restaurants as exciting as something new. In the food world, a changing of the guard at restaurants with such high profiles is like a trade by the Yankees.

Although Gilt has not been open quite a year, the space it occupies in the landmark Villard Mansion at the New York Palace Hotel has long been a dining destination. “This room has great culinary history. We really just wanted to keep that tradition going,” chef Christopher Lee said recently. Mr. Lee took the reins from chef Paul Liebrandt a few weeks ago, when the hotel decided to move the restaurant away from haute gastronomy toward a more casual cuisine. Accordingly, the jacket policy in the dining room has been abandoned.

Though Mr. Lee has been there only a few weeks, he’s launched Gilt’s first-ever bar menu, with elegant snacks like truffled french fries. His three-course prix fixe menu offers six appetizers, including a mosaic terrine of heirloom tomatoes served with a savory Parmesan ice cream. Six main courses include his re-invention of the classic Wellington, made with yellow fin tuna. He’ll expand the number of items and put on a tasting menu before the end of the year.

The transition is going smoothly so far, with the help of the existing dinning room staff, specifically the restaurant’s wine director, Jason Ferris. Messrs. Ferris and Lee worked together in Philadelphia in 2004, where they relaunched Stephan Starr’s Striped Bass with the consultation of the chef at Gotham Bar & Grill, Alfred Portale. It was Mr. Ferris who suggested Mr. Lee as a candidate for the top position at Gilt. “Of course we all knew who he was after he was on the cover of Food & Wine Magazine,” the restaurant’s public relations manager, Pete Holmberg, said. The magazine named Mr. Lee one of this year’s 10 best new chefs, and he won the James Beard “Rising Star” award last year.

“I always wanted to come back to New York,” Mr. Lee, who grew up in Long Island and previously worked at Daniel and Jean-Georges, said. “But I wanted to choose to return, when the moment was right.”

Gilt also has a new pastry chef. Nick Morgenstern came from Gramercy Tavern five weeks ago, after time spent in the pastry kitchens at Nice Matin and Daniel. “We met for the first time a few weeks ago, but we talked and agreed on a lot of the same ideas,” Mr. Morgenstern said recently. “Plus, how can you resist this room?” He’s re-imagining some classics on his menu as well, like the vacherin with a spiral of meringue, instead of the classic ladyfingers served with torn coconut cake.

Nancy Olsen replaces Mr. Morgenstern at Gramercy Tavern. She was recruited by the restaurant’s general manager, Kevin Mahan, because of her sweet work at Dona, Peacock Alley, and Django. She didn’t have a lot of time to get acclimated before changing the menu, because many of the desserts were based on summer fruits that were about to go out of season. She’s changed most of the Tavern menu, creating desserts such as a warm blackberry streusel cake with blackberry and lime sorbet, and a parfait of blueberry with a blueberry corn ice cream with toffee popcorn. “Her desserts strike just the right balance of sophistication and yummy soulfulness,” the restaurant’s owner, Danny Meyer, said.

A few weeks ago, chef Tom Colicchio announced he was leaving Gramercy Tavern to dedicate his energies to his ever-expanding Craft brand. “I knew we’d have big shoes to fill with the departure of Tom Colicchio, so it had to be someone quite good,” Mr. Meyer said. Last week, he announced that Michael Anthony, formerly of Blue Hill at Stone Barns, will take command of the stoves. For more than a decade, Gramercy Tavern has been one of the best rated and favorite restaurants in the city. Mr. Meyer said it has a defined style to maintain: “I expect Gramercy Tavern to evolve and march in a straight line forward.”

Mr. Anthony reports to work next month and expects to have his menus up and running in January. He described his modern American cooking style as having “a strong sense of the season and strong sense of personal touch.” It’s a touch he honed at Daniel, March, and in Michelin-starred Parisian kitchens. He’s known for his devotion to farm-fresh ingredients. “You can imagine how psyched I am,” Mr. Anthony said. “I mean, nobody buys more food from the farmers’ market.” Indeed, Gramercy Tavern is one of the few restaurants that have a person on staff whose job is to shop at the market. New challenges will be creating more casual fare and effectively running two restaurants under one kitchen, the casual front room and formal dining room. “I’m going to have a lot of fun with the Tavern menu. It’s going to be a blast.”

It’s been a busy recruiting year for Mr. Meyer, who has also added chefs Rob Garceau at Hudson Yards Catering and Daniel Humm at Eleven Madison Park, and pastry chefs Melissa Walnock at Tabla and Stacy Klein at Union Square Café. That means there will be more new fall menus throughout his Union Square Hospitality Group. Mr. Meyer thinks change can be good and sometimes even necessary. As he put it, “It’s always imperative to improve and to remain dynamic — or you’ll become lunch, as opposed to serving it.”