But in response to the news that Bill Sohovich's showcase restaurant in a landmark Charleston setting at 904 Quarrier St., was closing on Saturday, the place was still packed at 2 p.m. on Wednesday.

Rachelle Beckner, who works a couple blocks away at the Kanawha County Library, stopped by for lunch about 1 p.m., and couldn't get in because of the crush. She returned at 2 p.m., her radar locked onto a Blossom chocolate milkshake.

"The really tragic thing about this is Blossom is one of the gems of downtown Charleston," said Beckner, who planned on returning for lunch today to order the Blossom stir fry. "It's one of the most attractive things about downtown Charleston."

Like many in the lunch crowd, Beckner could not understand why the Blossom was closing, given how its lunch counters, tables and booths were always packed by high noon each work day.

Sohovich, who manned an order station nearby, had a ready answer as he shouted out customer orders and handed staffers lunch plates ready to be distributed  around the busy room.

"I just don't have the dinner business that I need," he said, eyeing a raft of orders splayed out on a counter. "It won't survive on lunch. Lunch is very good, but it won't survive on lunch.

"I am saddened that I have been here 17 years and I have to leave," said the chef, who also runs the equally popular Soho's restaurant at Capitol Market, with its predominantly Italian menu.

Upon Blossom's closing, Soho's menu will earn some new additions, refugees from the Blossom menu. Among them will be long-time favorites like the chicken artichoke salad and the Dinsmore, a sandwich piled with corned beef, pastrami, Swiss cheese, coleslaw and Russian Dressing grilled on pumpernickel bread.

"We're alive and well at Soho's. And a lot of the food and the staff will travel from here to Soho's," he said. "There's a lot of Blossom meals, lunch and dinner, that are going to transfer over."

Sohovich said he was heartened by the public's response to the news of the restaurant's closing and suggested that the place would rise again, in some form.

"The public has been very, very, very supportive of us. It was kind of a little bit overwhelming. I'm sure the Blossom will be back -- this is just a temporary setback -- whether it's either with me or with somebody else."

His most immediate concern, he said, was keeping the paychecks coming for the staff that contributed to the restaurant's long and popular run.

"We will have everybody jobs," he said. "Before it's all said and done, I will have everybody jobs, somewhere."

Reach Douglas Imbrogno at doug...@cnpapers.com or 304-348-3017.