The famed Boston restaurant Durgin-Park shut its doors Saturday night, closing with it a chapter of Boston history.

The nearly 200-year-old establishment — one of the city's oldest — closed, its owners said, because it was no longer profitable. The restaurant offered a menu of traditional New England dinners, served by ornery waitresses in a throwback dining room with communal seating.

On closing night, there was no line outside, as there had been for much of its final week, and the bar was busy, but not packed.

Cindy Loughlin came up from Providence for a final pot roast. Walking out of Durgin-Park to the beat of a paint bucket drummer, she admitted it was her first visit in quite some time. "I haven't been here probably in like 20 years, because you took it for granted that it was always here."

"Well, I wish [customers] hadn't waited 10 or 20 years to show up. That seems to be the problem. Everybody shows up when they know it's closing," said Michael Weinstein, CEO of Ark Restaurants — the company that owns Durgin-Park. "Customer counts have been on the decline."

Weinstein said four groups have been in touch about buying the Durgin-Park brand, but there’s nothing to announce.

Kevin Hart was among those who enjoyed a final meal.

"I had the Yankee pot roast. It was delicious. And I had some oysters," he said. "Now I feel I've done a bit of history, and it's going to be a shame to miss out on that."

Durgin-Park had all the trappings of an earlier Boston — the Boston that Groton resident Karen Murphy would visit with her dad, decades ago.

"These were all empty warehouses, and I remember walking down these alleys and watching the rats scurry around and going, 'Where is he taking us?'" she said. "And we'd get to Durgin-Park, and we'd have a great meal. And I remember the crass waitresses. She would say, 'What do you want for dinner?' I'd say, 'I dunno.' 'Well, why not? Why don't you know?'"

Sharon Cohen of the South End says the restaurant’s demise is a sign of the times, with new places pushing old ones out.

"It's too bad it's going out of business, but I'm sure the competition has affected that. And I think things change."

For now, there’s still one place you can eat under the Durgin-Park name: the international terminal at Logan Airport. There, past security, is the restaurant's final outpost. Operated by a different company, it’s still open. You can get the pot roast, but the history is gone.