OAKLAND — After 90 years of doing business in North Oakland, and pleas from customers for it not to be true, it’s closing time for Genova Delicatessen.

Temescal’s lunchtime favorite is shutting its doors for good on April 30, the owners said Friday.

“It was a very difficult decision,” said deli co-owner David DeVincenzi. “I don’t know exactly where to start.”

To start, you’d have to go back to 1926, when the deli opened. DeVincenzi’s great uncle Pietro Tira took over the place a couple of years later, and the business was eventually run by his parents, Dominic and Barbara DeVincenzi.

In all, four generations of the family have been associated with the deli. At age 6, David DeVincenzi would peel potatoes and sweep the deli floor; in high school he laughed at a counselor who tried talking him into attending college.

Over the years, the deli became known for its fresh pasta and lasagna, deli meats and family recipes of soup and sauces to go. Along with the Columbo Club on Claremont Avenue, Genova Deli remained as a reminder of Temescal’s roots as an Italian enclave.

Through the construction of the Grove-Shafter Freeway in the 1960s and the damage of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, the deli remained in Temescal, first at Telegraph and 49th Street, and now in the Temescal Plaza at 51st Street.

In February, the family announced they’d probably close if they couldn’t agree on the rent with the landlord. But DeVincenzi’s wife, Patti, said Friday that the real culprit was other costs, such as utilities, that would force them to raise their prices. They didn’t want to do that, she said.

“We’ve always felt the prices should be reasonable and the food really good quality which we have been able to manage, but the cost of doing business is to the point now where it became uncomfortable,” she said.

John Cullom, 58, estimates he’s been to the deli more than 100 times since his first stop there in the early 1980s.

“They always served the freshest sourdough French bread,” said Cullom, of Oakland. “It still is the best. Their meats and lasagnas were top notch. The deli meats? You just can’t get it any better.”

John Dobrovich, who represents the property owner, said they are looking for a local operator to run a deli in the same space and hopefully hire some of the 20 employees who have worked at Genova Deli.

“We respect their decision and thank the DeVincenzi family for their many years of providing such a wonderful deli for the Temescal community,” Dobrovich said in an email.

Barbara DeVincenzi and the family said they wanted to thank all their customers. The DeVincenzis will keep their Napa location open; two locations in Walnut Creek, which are owned by another part of the family, will also remain open.

The final deli counter tickets will be called before closing time on April 30.

“It is tough,” David DeVincenzi said, “but everything comes to an end.”

David DeBolt covers Oakland. Contact him at 510-208-6453. Follow him at Twitter.com/daviddebolt.