Longtime and famed local diner the Hungry Lion Coffee Shop is being booted out of its den.
Yesterday brought an abrupt end to about 27 years in business in the Nuuanu area.
About 20 employees were given a one-day notice. Customers had even less. Some of the waitresses called many of the regulars to come in and squeeze in one more meal, whether it was the diner's oxtail saimin or garden burger.
The closing comes after months of legal wrangling between property owner Walgreen Co., a national chain that bought the property in May 2008, and Hungry Lion's Kazuyuki Goto, the restaurant's owner since 2007.
The company has publicly stated its desire to raze the property and construct a new building for a Walgreens store and possibility other retail units.
The company has not presented a time line for the project.
The Hungry Lion is the second high-profile business to close at the plaza. In October Huckleberry Farms, a natural health food store that had been in business for 24 years, closed its doors after it agreed to terminate its lease with Walgreen.
The building started out as Chun Hoon Pharmacy in 1949, a combined drive-in, candy and nut shop and pet supplies store built around a large banyan tree. The Hungry Lion opened in 1983 and had been a staple of the Nuuanu area ever since.
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