Mellos restaurant is being kicked out of its 73-year location on Dalhousie Street after their landlord offered the space to neighbouring restaurant Ace Mercado.

Mellos is fighting for an injunction to stay open but its landlord has refused to renew its lease, said operating manager Nina Vaccaro, whose father-in-law has owned the restaurant for the past five years.

"We do not want to close Mellos," Vaccaro said. ​"It's an iconic, historical place in Ottawa."

The restaurant opened at 290 Dalhousie St. in 1942 and has been known for decades as a spot to get a greasy breakfast in the ByWard Market.

In 2012, the restaurant tried out a pop-up supper club, offering a chef-inspired gastro menu. The successful run led the restaurant to continue serving dinner.

"We've got a really great thing going. It doesn't make sense at all that they would want to close us down," Vaccaro said.

Ace Mercado to give old space 'new twist'

Phil Faubert , the owner and operator of Ace Mercado , said his lease has offered the option of taking over the space next door at Mellos since his restaurant opened 18 months ago. Phil Faubert is the owner of Ace Mercado, which opened next door to Mellos 18 months ago. (CBC) FaubertMercado

He said he made the decision to do so a couple of weeks ago and plans to keep the unique space intact.

"We're going to do a nice little twist — maintaining the heritage of the diner, the greasy spoon Mellos that we all know it for, but we're just going to bring it a little bit more back to life," Faubert said. "We're going to bring it together with Ace."

Faubert added that his plan for Mellos is still in the "design phase" and that he hasn't decided yet whether he will tear down the wall between the two spaces.

The menu at Ace Mercado was developed by chef René Rodriguez, who also owns Navarra and was the winner of Top Chef Canada in 2014.

Vaccaro said her landlord offered Mellos a six-month lease extension in the summer when a previous five-year lease was up. The latest lease ends Dec. 31.

A spokesperson for the building's owner told CBC News offering the space to Ace Mercado was a business decision.

'How do you replicate this?'

Mellos patron Kevin Selch said the diner is a treasure that has so far survived all the development he has seen in and around the ByWard Market since he moved to Ottawa nearly a decade ago. It offers "a feeling of continuity," he said.

Mellos operating manager Nina Vaccaro, left, speaks to restaurant regular Kevin Selch, right. (CBC)

​"This is one of the few places that the locals love to go. We feel a real attachment to this place, for sure," Selch said. "It's the history of the place. It's just the feeling of the place that you can't really reproduce."

The narrow, intimate restaurant in a "tiny, 500-square-foot space" has a long counter where patrons can watch the chefs prepare their meals, as well as "uneven booths" that have a certain charm, Vaccaro said.

"How do you replicate this? There's something about the floors, the space, the walls. There's something about having that sign," Vaccaro said.

"If you tear it all out and put it in another location, it's not the same restaurant. It doesn't have the same nostalgia as Mellos has always had."