The “Dining Capital of the North Shore” has suffered a casualty.

After 20 years and two name changes, the Roxy Cafe will shut down permanently today after one last lunch shift.

“This is entirely an issue with the landlord not being able to renegotiate our lease,” said Toni Colhoff, manager of the cafe at 626 Church St. The restaurant’s lease for the ground floor of the Carlson Building expires in March.

Cameel Halim, the building’s owner, said he started negotiating a new lease with the Roxy’s parent company, Select Restaurants, more than six months ago. Halim said the company’s president broke off discussions soon after.

“We wanted to renegotiate at the market value,” Halim said. “I don’t want them to leave because of a lack of communication, but they have to negotiate a deal that’s not one-sided.”

Halim said Select Restaurants did not tell him the Roxy would be closing until Thursday morning and he wishes the two sides could have reached a compromise.

“The rent should not be a major factor in closing the restaurant,” he said. “I think there are other reasons.”

But Colhoff, who has been at the Roxy since January, said employees were surprised to find out about the closing. The staff, including Colhoff, were told Tuesday.

“There was not any indication,” she said. “I think the universal feeling here is, ‘We don’t want to go.'”

Colhoff said the Roxy’s revenues did not affect the decision to close the restaurant. Officials at Select Restaurants could not be reached Thursday night.

Colhoff said Select Restaurants offered the Roxy’s 25 employees positions at its other restaurants around Chicago. But most of the staff relies on public transportation, she said, which does not reach the alternate locations.

The restaurant’s staff was close, said Margo Buchanan, a Medill junior who worked at the Roxy for more than a year.

“We had a really great serving staff,” she said. “It was like hanging out with another group of friends.”

The Italian-themed restaurant attracted a consistent crowd of patrons, too, Colhoff said, many of whom developed “personal connections” with the employees. After she heard about the closing, Colhoff called many of her regulars so they would not miss a last meal.

Ken Hazlett received one of those calls. He and his wife eat at the Roxy once a week.

“We’re dumfounded,” Hazlett said. “It’s like losing part of your family.”

Hazlett broke his diet Thursday night so that he could eat all of his favorite dishes, including the artichoke dip with crab.

There are currently no plans to re-open the Roxy at another location, Colhoff said. The restaurant’s furnishings will be auctioned off in November.

“Evanston is losing an institution,” Hazlett said. “The Roxy was part of the fabric of downtown.”