Boulder Café, long known around town for its extended happy hour — 3 p.m. to close, every day of the week — will shutter its doors in June after more than two decades on the Pearl Street Mall.

Stephen Tebo, of Tebo/Karakehian LLC, the company that owns the building at 1247 Pearl St. where Boulder Café has been since 1991, said the restaurant’s 20-year lease, which expires in June, won’t be renewed.

“Their lease is up,” Tebo said. “We’ve got a lot of interest from some other people with new ideas and concepts, and we decided it’s time to go with one of those new concepts.”

When asked if the split was mutual, Tebo said, “It’s mutual in that the lease was mutually agreed upon when it was negotiated 20 years ago.”

Tebo owns the building that houses Boulder Café in conjunction with George Karakehian, a member of the Boulder City Council.

Tebo and Karakehian confirmed the restaurant will close in June.

Restaurant owner Dave Jablonski could not be reached for comment this week. It’s not known whether he is seeking a new home for the Boulder Café.

In 2003, Jablonski told the Daily Camera about the origins of his café.

“I called it the Boulder Café because when I looked in the phone book, nobody had Boulder in the name of their restaurant,” he said. “I wanted my restaurant to reflect what goes on here — and it’s an international city.”

‘I don’t know what we’re going to do’

In the opinion of certain café patrons, the restaurant’s closure symbolizes the loss of a city institution.

“I mean, it’s the Boulder Café,” said Ian Scott, a regular for the last decade. “It’s where you take your family and friends when they come to visit. It’s right on the prime corner in downtown Boulder where you can watch all the street performers do cool stuff and get that full Pearl Street vibe.

“For being landlocked,” Scott added, “they have bizarrely good seafood.”

Gaila Martinson, who has been visiting the Pearl Street Mall “since before it was a mall,” said she’ll now be scrambling to find a new haunt.

“This is one of those places we used to be able to go to when the mall first opened, and it feels like it’s the last place,” she said. “Tom’s Tavern is gone. Juanita’s is gone. It feels like they’re all gone. I don’t go to those new places, and (Boulder Café) is really the reason I come to Pearl Street at night. I don’t know what we’re going to do now. This was the place.”

Camera Staff Writer Alex Burness contributed to this report.