It’s been a generation since the last night owl stopped by Biff’s, the spaceship-looking landmark operating as a 24-7 coffee shop just off Broadway’s Auto Row.

Now, with the Oakland City Council’s dead-of-night vote early Wednesday, April 6, it seems doomsday’s finally come for the kitschy relic of early ’60s California car culture.

Biff’s made a lot of friends in its time. Seven thousand signatures protesting Chevron’s plans to rebuild it into a McDonald’s in the late ’90s convinced the petroleum giant to just sell the site and be done with it. And although Biff’s has been vacant ever since — its final incarnation was under the moniker JJ’s — the informal group Friends of Biff’s was able to keep the wrecking ball at bay another six months or so since the demolition deal went down in city chambers last year.

But by the time the council got around to considering a stay of execution for Biff’s this time, there was no one else to speak up for the beloved historic building and so, with no dissent, the panel voted unanimously to deny Friends of Biff’s appeal of the Planning Commission’s approval of a developer’s plans to replace it.

Biff’s, a 6,000-square-foot circular eatery, opened during the Kennedy administration. It was paid for by Chevron, which also operated the gas station next door, and was designed by Southern California architects Louis Armet, Eldon Davis and Victor Newlove to be eye-catching to passing autos. Herb Caen famously called that trio “the Frank Lloyd Wright of diner designers.” Their “Googie”-style buildings, particularly in the South State, were iconic symbols of the “Jetsons” ethos.

But where once there were Naugahyde booths, some equipped with Princess phones, situated around an open kitchen, a different aesthetic prevails today. The Houston developer Hanover Co., which has also submitted plans for a 230-unit building across the street on Valdez, is planning to demolish Biff’s in favor of a blockish, seven-story “hipster hive” of 255 condo units. The housing would be built over 23,000 and 33,000 square feet, respectively, of retail space.

“Any developer can come in and do anything,” complained retired architect Joyce Roy, a member of Friends of Biff’s, who spearheaded opposition to the development plan. Historically, she said, “Oakland has been a beggar.” But given its emergence in recent years as a hot real estate market, city planners now “could be choosers instead. But they’re still acting like beggars.

“I feel like even greater than the loss of Biff’s is my faith in the city of Oakland,” she added. “They’ve violated their own regulations to tear this down.”

To continue the battle would now “take some kind of an angel, or an attorney that wanted to do it pro bono,” she said. “So it’s doubtful. It means that all historic resources are vulnerable.”

W.W. “Biff” Naylor, after whom the original Biff’s was named, struck a more conciliatory tone. “I’m not knocking it,” he said. “The Houston developer is very good, and they’re very nice. They’re putting a ton of money into this. On the other hand, it’s not in keeping with the neighborhood I knew.”

Naylor was born just blocks away at Peralta Hospital on Pill Hill and his dad, Tiny Naylor, was “a pioneer restaurateur” who operated more than 100 restaurants in California, including several in Oakland, he said. The family moved south after World War II and the original Biff’s, in Los Angeles, “was a forerunner to all the modern coffee shops,” he said, with its stainless steel counters, refrigerated pie cases, plate “lowerators” that warmed or cooled plates as needed and the “full exhibition” layout whereby cooks worked in full view of the customers.

His willingness to take on a revitalized Biff’s — and pay $20,000 monthly rent — was prominently touted in the Friends’ objections to plans to tear it down. But Naylor said he would first want to see the restaurant restored to its former glory.

“If they want to restore that restaurant to what it was before, then I would be interested,” he said, while scoffing at suggestions that the minimum wage should go as high as $20 an hour. “It’s hard to imagine hiring a dishwasher for $40,000,” he said.

Naylor has carried on the family business with his daughter, Jennifer Naylor, who’s executive chef for seven Southern California Du-Pars restaurants.

“I’m not going to stand in the way of development or progress or anything else,” he said, but, “It’s a family thing for me. If it’s available, I would be honored to give Oakland something it doesn’t have now and frankly, never will.”