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.

“;It's somewhere I come to unwind during the day while I'm working,”; said 57-year-old Nuuanu resident Craig Williams. “;This was perfect for that. How many other coffee shops are around here?”;

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.

Goto yesterday declined to comment, instead citing the weakened economy as the reason for closing.

But court documents filed in District Court show that Walgreen took issue with late rental payments. Goto was notified in October that he owed more than $100,000 in rent, according to the documents.

Goto had proposed to the property manager of the Nuuanu Shopping Plaza that he would pay $11,651 three times a month to catch up. This was not the first time such a payment arrangement had been made, Goto's attorney Mitchell Wong said in court filings.

In November, Walgreen took Goto to court, citing a breach of contract, and asked for a judgment for possession, which allows landlords to force tenants to move off.

On Jan. 4 the court favored Walgreen. It wasn't until Monday that Goto learned he had to leave the property this week.

The Hungry Lion's lease was to end in 2012, with the option to extend it to 2017. However, according to a July letter from property manager CB Richard Ellis to Goto, Walgreen offered to buy out the rest of Goto's lease for $475,000 and for the restaurant to be off the premises by October 2009 at the earliest, and this month at the latest.

A spokesman for Illinois-based Walgreen was not available for comment yesterday afternoon.

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.

It was the first stop former resident Jeanette Canterbury would make whenever she came to the island, just as it was when she flew in from Sun City West, Ariz., yesterday morning.

Less than an hour after her arrival, she walked into the Hungry Lion, shocked that it would be her last visit but relieved that she made it at all.

“;I always have to come to Hungry Lion,”; she said. She visits her 93-year-old mother in the Pali area every three months. “;It's always from the airport, then here, then to my mom's. I remember this tree ... it was the good old days. I'm gonna miss it.”;

Goto said he's tried to cut costs by doing much of the work himself—washing dishes, working the register and cooking food. “;I just wanted to protect my employees. They've been here longer than me,”; he said.

Customers took photos of the restaurant and chatted with employees. While they stood outside, a longtime customer asked Goto what he plans to do next. Goto shrugged and said he didn't know.

The customer, an elderly man who declined to give his name but said he was a Nuuanu resident who walked to the restaurant every day, looked up at yesterday's rain clouds.

“;Someday it's gonna be sunny again,”; he told Goto.