At 3 p.m., Byung Kwon plans to turn off the grill for the last time at Fast Break, the breakfast and lunch counter where she has served sandwiches, shakes and stir fry for the past 25 years. Fast Break, like its neighbor the State Soda Shop, is closing to make way for a new courthouse.

It was just a month ago that State Soda, which had been a downtown lunch institution since the 1920s, closed.

"It's sad to see the old places go," said Sgt. R.B. Clark, a Wake County detention officer who has been a customer at Fast Break for 12 years. "We'll miss them."

It's not the ending that Kwon had anticipated when she found out last year that their building would be demolished to make room for a $214 million county courthouse and justice center, scheduled to open in 2013.

Kwon said she and her husband, Shin, have unsuccessfully looked around downtown Raleigh for another location. They have resigned themselves to retiring after today.

Kwon, 60, has shed a lot of tears this week as longtime customers have come to say goodbye.

"You know we all love you," Clark told Kwon on Thursday.

It's a relationship with the community that dates back 30 years, to when the Kwons relocated from Seoul, South Korea, to Raleigh.

"It reminded me of home," Kwon said of the much smaller Raleigh of 1978.

The family moved to Brooklyn in 1979, but they returned to Raleigh after a year. They bought Fast Break in 1983.

When they began operating the restaurant, Kwon said, they served the same mix of breakfast and lunch fare that had been on Fast Break's menu before. But Kwon said that, because they are Asian, customers expected them to serve stir fry as well. They were happy to oblige.

"We're going to miss them," said Will Webb, an attorney and longtime customer. "She makes great food and good stir fry."

Business has been especially brisk this week. Kwon promised to make her famous spaghetti Wednesday but ran out because of demand. She told her customers she would make some more for today.

After all, Kwon couldn't imagine disappointing her customers.

"All my customers are just like my family," she said.