They have called all their old friends to tell them the news, people who have come every week, some almost every day, for more than 20 years. The goodbye hugs have already started at the hostess stand. A funeral wreath has been ordered for next Friday for an aloha that will likely be as much laughter as tears.

When Hackfeld's Restaurant closes, it's not like saying goodbye to ono ono shakes or the best katsu in town. The food is reliable Continental fare: soup and salad for lunch, tenderloin tips for dinner.

It's not a funky old greasy spoon or a dark and smoky hideaway. The booths and chairs are an unremarkable taupe, the brass touches need attention, and for a place that serves drinks from 10:30 in morning, it's very well lit.

Still, there's something about the little restaurant in the bottom floor of Macy's Ala Moana that feels like home.

There will be no going home after next Friday.

Macy's representatives told the Hackfeld's staff this week that the restaurant will be closing to make room for more storage space. Their last day is Friday.

The staff members are putting on brave faces for their beloved customers, but there were lots of tears following the surprise announcement.

"We're all just devastated, in a state of shock. We were all in tears," said bartender Tish Little, who has worked at Hackfeld's since 1989.

Most of the 16-person staff has been there for years. This isn't a place with a teenage wait staff that doesn't show up for work when the surf is up. Hackfeld's is stable and familiar. When people quit or retire from Hackfeld's, they always come back to eat dinner or talk story at the bar.

At lunch on Friday, manager Didi Todd is seating customers, bussing tables, filling glasses and hugging sad-faced customers who come in and ask, "Is it true?"

People are saying it's the last vestige of Liberty House.

Hackfeld's was named after Captain Heinrich Hackfeld, a German who started a coffee plantation in Kona and a dry-goods store in Honolulu in the 1880s. Hackfeld's became a department store. During World War I, Hackfeld's company became American Factors, more familiarly called Amfac, and the name of the store was changed to The Liberty House to reflect the sentiment of the times.

Hackfeld's restaurant was opened in June 1981. It was a rest spot for hungry shoppers, a place to have a ladies' lunch, and a bar where husbands could hang out and talk story while their wahine were picking through the store. Hackfeld's made for many happy marriages. The men got to hoist a few with the guys while the women knew just where they were — someplace reputable, close by and safe.

There are pictures of fruit on the wall in gold frames.

A wooden clock with the Hackfeld logo hangs near the bar — a handmade gift from a customer.

There isn't an open barstool for more than a minute. As soon as someone leaves, someone else joins the row of reverse-print aloha shirt regulars.

"The powerful business meetings, the love affairs, lots of things have happened over the years," Little says.

The waitress with the ipu earrings and matching ipu hair stick doesn't have to write your order. It's all in her head.

If you bust out some pidgin, she'll bust it right back. But only if you bring it first. Otherwise, it's warmly formal.

This is part of why people love this place. The staff sizes you up in an instant and figures out how to make you comfortable. The service is tailored to you. They help scoot your purchases under the table if you're carrying big bags. They know how and how much to help old folks with walkers or canes or wheelchairs. They know whom to fuss over and tease and whom to leave alone.

"In the old days, all the big owners of Amfac would come down. They knew us by name, we knew them by name," Little says.

It started out as a convenience for shoppers, but Hackfeld's soon held its own draw.

"Some folks eat there two or three times a week," says Georgette Wagner, whose husband has worked at Hackfeld's for decades. "They became family. They give everybody Christmas presents and flowers on birthdays."

Hackfeld's employees were offered positions with Macy's, but it's hard for most of them to imagine doing anything else anywhere else. This has been home. Not a wild, rowdy, crusty-local-dive kind of home. A safe, well-lit, loving and happy home.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.