After 35 years of serving cafeteria customers and toasting longtime lovers, Furr’s has closed its Muskogee cafeteria.

The cafeteria, 2242-B E. Shawnee Bypass, closed at 2 p.m. Saturday because of a declining market, said cafeteria manager Curtis Chapman.

“The market no longer supported our needs, and we could not pay our bills,” he said.

He said the cafeteria, which opened in 1973, had 30 employees as of Tuesday. Some employees were given the option of working at other Furr’s locations, the nearest being in Tulsa and Fort Smith, Ark.

Jane Conway, a longtime regular customer, said she ate there on the final day.

“I’m sad that it’s closing,” she said. “They claimed they didn’t have any business. I ate there because they had good vegetables. We need a good cafeteria here.”

Chapman said an average of 3,000 customers ate at Furr’s each week.

“That’s not enough for a market like this,” he said.

He said about 200 people ate at Furr’s on the day it closed.

For more than 13 years, the cafeteria, an anchor at Curt’s Mall, served free Valentine’s Day meals to couples who were married for more than 50 years. In 1989, the first year of the Golden Sweethearts Anniversary Celebration, the cafeteria served 100 couples. Muskogee Phoenix stories said couples would call as early as the start of each year to get on the list.

Based in Plano, Texas, Furr’s operates more than 54 Furr’s Family Dining and Furr’s Fresh Buffet locations throughout the west and southwest. The first Furr’s opened in Hobbs, N.M., in 1946. Before the Muskogee cafeteria closed, Furr’s had six cafeterias in Oklahoma, with locations in Moore, Tulsa, Oklahoma City and Lawton.

Furr’s is the second chain restaurant to close in Muskogee in the month. Denny’s, 635 S. 32nd St., closed on Oct. 7 while corporate officials seek another franchisee. Also Starbucks, which opened at 591 W. Shawnee Bypass around Thanksgiving last year, closed on Sept. 25 as did the Starbucks in Tahlequah.