BROOKLYN, N.Y. - Customers are signing a keepsake book, bringing gifts and even delivering cake as they bid a proper farewell to longtime restaurant owner Anthony Catapano, who is about to close a beloved Gowanus institution, Two Toms, after 71 years.

"I feel like I'm in my grandmother's house and the food is great," says one customer.

"I wish they weren't closing but that's why we're here to celebrate the life of this restaurant," adds another.

With its paneled walls and ceiling fans, Two Toms is a throwback, almost frozen in time. Catapano says he hasn't updated the place much since the 1970's.

"We're not commercial. We're not a franchise. We're just Two Toms," Catapano says.

The two Toms in his life are an uncle and a cousin who opened the restaurant with his parents in 1948. Catapano is the only family member left and at 62 years old, he still does all the cooking himself.

"Very old school. It's just the way I was brought up you know," Catapano says. "This is the way I was taught so that's exactly what I do."

Catapano says he considers his longtime customers an extension of his family. Many grew up in the neighborhood too.

One longtime patron says, "When this first started there was no menu, no credit cards were accepted. You sat down and told them what you'd like to eat. Do you like chicken? You like beef? And that's it."

Another says, "Nothing has changed. The paneling. I don't think they've washed the paneling at all. Nothing. Nothing has changed. And that's the charm of this place, like going to grandma's basement. It's the same exceptr the black and white TV is missing."

Now the chef is ready to serve his last red sauce and retire. Real estate values in this former industrial neighborhood are surging and the old neighbors are gone. Catapano decided to sell his building.

"The people that are moving in, this is not their style.You used to come here, you knew everyone in the neighborhood. It was the neighborhood place to go. It was great. It always has been. For the last 55 years I've been coming here it's been great," says a longtime customer.

Now patrons are trying to get in their last meal and capture their final moments.

"The wood paneling. I told Anthony when he closes up, in the will I get the wood paneling," another diner says.

The Two Tom's era ends on December 28.