As we go to press, we have learned that Millie's Place will close on Sunday. It is a story with no winners. Millie Gubbins, her family, and her staff will pack up the pots and pans, the gilded mirrors, the funky floor lamps and a cartload of memories. The landlord, Bijan Nassi, will lose a tenant that he says he admires and values. And thousands of families who have celebrated weddings, births, bat and bar mitzvahs, graduations, confirmations or a simple quiet supper in its welcoming and stylish atmosphere will miss the restaurant that in 25 years became a Great Neck institution.

It was the little restaurant that could. Millie Gubbins, a mother with two young children to support was a gifted hostess who loved to cook and entertain her friends and family, but she admits that she had more grit and guts than experience. She says she was laughed out of a restaurant supply store in the Bowery because she was not ordering commercial cooking sized pots and pans for the fledgling eatery. And she speaks fondly of her first landlord who finished off the back room for her because he believed she would succeed.

But things have not gone smoothly between Ms. Gubbins and one of her more recent landlords, Bijan Nassi. Both parties say that they were willing to negotiate, but that the other party was not. According to Ms. Gubbins, Mr. Nassi wanted to double her rent, but Mr. Nassi states that the only real issue he had with the restaurant revolved around complaints about smelly garbage dumpsters in the back. He says, "We could have worked out the money. I had asked for $12,000 per month, but had been accepting the $10,000 that we were being paid. Millie is a good tenant with a beautiful restaurant and very good food. Why would I want to lose her? As a businessman, I know that it would take me at least 7 or 8 months to get a new tenant. Why would I do that? Will you talk to her?"

Mr. Nassi indicated that the eviction notices were simply formalities to "encourage sitting down to negotiate." Ms. Gubbins and Mr. Nassi comment that the other one was unwilling for a face-to-face encounter on the issue and that most of the communications took place between their lawyers.

Both Mr. Nassi and his attorney, Ira Bierman, speculate that the restaurant's business was in decline naming the parking pressures and the changing appetite and food tastes of the community as factors.

But Ms. Gubbins says that her "Place" was like a gracious home filled with countless, rich memories of sharing good times and bad with a loyal clientele. Ms. Gubbins says, "I met my husband here and my son and daughter met their respective spouses here ... I was heartsick at the thought of leaving when we began to have problems with the lease and it became impossible to book events into the future. At first I was angry, but now I am sad. I really put my heart into this place. I have been just overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from everyone. These last days feel surreal."

Ms. Gubbins is as well known for her philanthropy as for her famous apple cake. Every Thanksgiving she hosted a lavish banquet for seniors without nearby families to share the day and always received rave reviews from the participants.

Mr. Nassi said at the end of our interview, "Millie is a strong lady. I still can't believe that she's really leaving."

Neither can we.