Fitzies City Cafe will close the doors for good on August 11, saying farewell to more than 40 years of serving Launceston.

And when the doors close, the neon lights are switched off and coffee machine powered down, it will leave behind a host of memories for a band of loyal, long-term customers.

For many, Fitzies has been part of daily life – a chocolate milkshake, chips and gravy, roast beef and vegetables, a banana split.

The food, the ambience, but most of all the customer service  – all things Fitzies’ visitors point to for why the little cafe tucked away in Harris Scarfe is so beloved.

For the older generations, Fitzies is a last bastion of an era they remember well, when Coles and Myers also had cafeterias in-store, when customer service was the priority, and everyone knew to meet at Fitzies.

On Thursday a number of loyal customers and former staff enjoyed classic fare from the Fitzies menu and shared their memories of the cafe.

Sisters Roma Bowman and Vassie Buchanan, née Sarich, were in Fitzies with Roma’s daughter.

“We’ve been coming here for about 40 years,” Mrs Bowman said, who lives now in Queensland but with her daughter was visiting Mrs Buchanan and taking her to her favourite lunchtime spot.

“It is the friendliest place and the girls are just wonderful, they’re always the same – nothing seems to be a worry to them, no matter what you want, you get, with a smile.

“You always feel wanted when you walk in here.”

Mrs Bowman said when she and Mrs Buchanan were younger they brought their mother to Fitzies every Friday “for years and years and years”.

“It’s just a lovely friendly atmosphere and everyone speaks to you whether you know one another or not,” Mrs Buchanan, who is known in the Launceston dancing community, added.

The sisters said it would be a loss to them when Fitzies closes on August 11, unsure where they would go in Launceston for the same caring service and traditional, comfortable menu. 

Former owner Mike Edwards sold the business to Rhonda Talbot in 2010; he remembers the days when the queue would trail out to Charles Street.

“I was involved right from the very start … we employed 25 staff, we served up to about 1500-odd people a day,” he said.

“What we’ve always tried to do here is keep continuity of standard … it’s comfort food, it’s good food and it’s cooked fresh on the premises every day.”

Tucked away in the corner beside the stairs up from Harris Scarfe, Norma Malcolm was sitting in her favourite place, with easy access for her walker and a view across the entire cafe.

“It’s going to be awfully sad, there’s a lot of elderly people that come up here for meals,” she said.

“Where else are they going to go to get a well-cooked meal at a reasonable price and a happy atmosphere?”

Like Mrs Bowman, Norma said one of the cafe’s unique abilities was to make all visitors feel not only welcome, but wanted – which she put down entirely to the caring, attentive staff.

She said losing the cafe would cost many elderly people much of their social life, a fixed location of familiarity and nostalgia that was safe and welcoming to all people, young and old.

Susan Amerikanos continued a long-standing family tradition by bringing in two-year-old Ada to enjoy some hot chips and a frog-in-a-pond.

“It brings back memories here – the new places are lovely … but the older people like to go back to what they know,” she said.

“Once it goes, it won’t come back.”

Mrs Amerikanos said she remembered going to cafeteria-style restaurants at Coles and Myers in Launceston’s past, but the closure of Fitzies would mark the end of an era.

“The world’s moving on, and we’re moving with it.”

For the past five years New South Wales resident Dianne Newberry has visited her daughter in Launceston – and made sure to stop at Fitzies each visit.

She came into Fitzies on Thursday thinking about chips and gravy, but was lured away by the fresh pumpkin soup on offer.

“I will be sad to see it close, there’s not many of them around here,” she said.

Like the cafe’s other loyal customers, she pointed to the warm and welcoming service and classic traditional food as reasons for years of visiting Fitzies.