Downtown Crossing will be without one of its longest serving bar tops. Silvertone Bar and Grill, formerly located at 69 Bromfield Street, served its last customer on Friday, May 31 and has closed its doors.

The dinner and dive establishment had been around since 1997 and saw several eras of Boston’s restaurant cultures. Silvertone was well known as a late-night spot for other food and beverage industry professionals to get a post-shift drink, particularly in the days when there were less options in the area.

The bar’s original owner, Josh Childs told Eater Boston that when the bar first opened, working late hours is how Silvertone became a recurring haunt of Boston restauranters Barbara Lynch, Ming Tsai and Ken Oringer.

“All the time I've been here, Downtown Crossing has always been ‘five years away,’” Childs told Eater Boston in 2013. “I feel like it's finally kind of happening.”

Silvertone was one of the earliest adopters of the now everywhere craft cocktail programs. After attending a bartending course in Oregon, Childs and a colleague from No. 9 Park in Beacon Hill introduced fresh squeezed citrus and cocktails carefully stirred on ice.

“It was probably much easier to physically make the drinks then. The most complicated thing we'd make was a free poured Cosmopolitan, Beer and shots and Vodka sodas. But I like to think you're coming here to see the people. The product is very good, but we're also a community.”

From there, Silvertone’s late night success grew into the day, as its reliable menu of steak tips, mac and cheese and more attracted a lunch crowd from the many businesses near Downtown Crossing.

In 2016, ownership of Silvertone passed from Childs, who is now a partner at Audubon on Beacon Street and Trina’s Starlite Lounge in Sommerville, to David Savoie. A longtime regular, Savoie made the short move from barstool to bartender.

“I bought my favorite bar. I still love Silvertone.” he told The Boston Globe on June 3, after the news of the closure spread.

Many a patron lamented the announcement when the news broke on Facebook.

“Sad to hear,” posted Brig Id, who is now located in New York. “I spent many an evening tipping my cup there in the 2000s.”

“I’m so bummed,” posted Chelsea Petersen from Beverly. “It was a few doors down from my old office. One of the last little gems in [Downtown Crossing].”

Savoie told The Globe that the closure is the result of a post-COVID reduction in office workers working downtown. “Our customers were very much office people, and the offices are gone,” he told The Globe. “We’re below nine floors of offices with zero percent occupancy. Our lunch and after work crowd paid the bills.”

An estimated 20 percent of office spaces in Boston have remained vacant, and even at the occupied spaces, at least a third of workers spend some days working from home, according to a February report from the Boston Policy Institute.

However, James Piombino, communications coordinator at the Downtown Boston Business Improvement District, said that there was reason for optimism. Piombino noted that the average number of days spent by office workers downtown has been steadily rising since March 2020.