The spinning salad bowl is coming to a stop. Permanently.

Don Roth's Blackhawk, which is celebrating 40 years in northwest suburban Wheeling, announced Monday that the venerable restaurant will close at the end of the year.

"I come to this meeting ... with mixed emotions and heavy heart," Ann Roth, widow of the late Don Roth, said in a statement. "It became crystal clear, that with my pushing 90 and with none of my children choosing to run the business, that 40 great years here were really quite enough for me."

There has been a Blackhawk restaurant in the Chicago area for 90 years; Otto Roth opened the original Blackhawk in the Loop, where people crowded in for fine food and big-band entertainment. The Wheeling operation (61 N. Milwaukee Ave., 847-537-5800) continued the Blackhawk tradition of fine steaks and seafood, and the famed spinning salad bowl, introduced in 1952, that accompanied every meal.

"I expect the next two months to be busy," said general manager Bob Vorachek. "I think there are a lot of people for whom the Blackhawk was a part of their lives, and they'll want to take one last spin, as it were.

"We're going to go out while the Blackhawk is still a going concern, and still popular," he said. "The family is doing it the right way, with our heads held high and pleased that we were part of this history."