Going, going . . .

"Hey, John," I heard behind me as I was walking from the house.

And there was Michael, the manager at La Trattoria, coming down our street on his bike.

I quickly apologized for not dropping by in a while -- there's the budget, plus the question of eating alone -- and said I'd make sure to come in this weekend to celebrate the paneling.

"I'm not there anymore," he said, which is about like Mickey not being in Orlando.

Virgilio Vitale founded the restaurant at Duval and Applerouth in 1984, and it's passed down through the family since. But it seems Carmelo and Carolyn got a too-tempting offer from a pair of guys from Texas. And when the family left, so did Michael.

C&C will still be in Key West -- devoting more time to the Bottle Cap, down near Camille's, which they bought a few years back and are turning into quite a fun club. Michael's staying on the island, too, though he wants a day job for a change.

Just goes to prove that it's true, from Heraclitus to Quincy Jones: Everything must change.

Make an exception for the tortellini alla romana, dammit.

- ■ -

People thought Michael Patrick was gone, but no.

He's the escape artist who hangs upside down in chains and a straitjacket at the Mallory Square sunset celebration. On Halloween, which he pointed out was the anniversary of Houdini's death, he hopped over to the water's edge, swathed in said chains and straitjacket, and plummeted into the water like a stone. And stayed gone. Bubble. Bubble. Bubble.

Tourists freaked out, leaving the scene of the fruitless search shocked, some weeping. Fellow sunset performers freaked out, too; some jumped in to try to save him. Then the harbor scuba cops, and the sheriff's divers, and the Coast Guard, who all searched for the body into the night. . .

And into the morning, when he was found sleeping, along with his girlfriend and his dog, in a Truman Avenue guest house (somebody snitched), and thence transported to the county clink.

Government agencies put the tab for the searches at $25,000, which happens to be half the amount required to spring him on bail, so he's still the sheriff's s guest. So much for his prowess at real escapes. And the grand finale: he's been banned for life from Sunset.