Sally's Waffle Shoppe, 5454 N. Harlem Ave., abruptly closed at the end of 2016. View Full Caption DNAinfo/Alex Nitkin

NORWOOD PARK — The shuttered Sally's Waffle Shoppe, 5454 N. Harlem Ave., will be replaced by the city's fourth Cozy Corner Restaurant & Pancake House, according to its former owner.

Neighbors were dismayed when Sally's, a community mainstay since it opened more than 40 years ago, abruptly shut its doors at the end of 2016.

"There was a serious emotional attachment for people like me, who grew up with Sally's," said Alyssa Triptow, director of the Norwood Park Chamber of Commerce. "We're all really sad and depressed to see it go."

Dimitrios Tingas, who owned Sally's since 2011, decided to sell the restaurant because he and his family are moving out of state, he told DNAinfo Wednesday.

The inside of an existing Cozy Corner location in Rogers Park View Full Caption DNAinfo/Linze Rice

But Tingas personally shopped the building to the owner of Cozy Corner, which he called "one of my favorite places, and the only place that can live up to Sally's."

"It will have pretty much the same menu, and the same kind of ideas" as the restaurant it's replacing, Tingas said.

Cozy Corner already operates restaurants in Logan Square, Hermosa and Edgewater.

The new eatery will likely open in June, after "some remodeling," Tingas said.