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The Grosenbachs took the call Sunday night from Matt Smith, Grandmother’s managing partner.

Smith had just told employees the longtime Lincoln restaurant was closing, and now he was breaking the news to regulars.

“I was stunned,” said Gina Grosenbach, 50, who not only dined there often with her husband, Dave, but worked at Grandmother’s in the late 1980s. Their daughters, Megan and Makenna, worked there, too.

“I’m still kind of like it can’t be true,” Grosenbach said. “I loved their food. Loved their staff. I’m still getting choked up that it’s not going to be there anymore.”

J Hoffman, 55, said he feels sad, too. He and his wife, Jamie, 52, enjoyed their first date there in 1984 and celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary there in 2011. Two of their three children worked there.

“We were just there recently,” he said. “I bet we went there every couple of weeks. It was a Saturday highlight for us.”

Grandmothers Inc., and president and co-founder Dean Rasmussen, closed the 7,500-square-foot restaurant Monday after 40 years in the capital city and 32 years at 6940 A St. Smith said Grandmother’s closed for financial reasons, saying the full-service business model “no longer was working.”