WEST CARROLLTON — The owners of The Grub Steak , which has been in business for 50 years, announced Sunday that the restaurant will close on Feb. 23.

The restaurant was a fixture on North Main Street in Dayton for decades before moving to 2098 South Alex Road near Ohio 725 in 2008.

In a letter on the restaurant’s website, owners Fred and Sheila Fiebiger and Heather Wimberly thanked customers and said, “There have been many businesses that have not survived the poor economic climate in recent years. Due to these bad financial situations, and the rising cost of our expenses, it has become necessary for us to close the restaurant.”

Wimberly said in an email to the Dayton Daily News Sunday that 34 employees will be affected.

“We do not have any plans to open another restaurant, due to the economy,” Wimberly said. “It is a constant struggle to make a profit in an independent restaurant.”

Shanon Morgan, president of the Miami Valley Restaurant Association, agreed, saying that it’s “incredibly hard for independent restaurants to compete year after year with such a tough economy.

“It’s always sad to say goodbye to a part of our past,” Morgan said.

The Grub Steak Restaurant was founded in 1963 by Joe Bissett on North Main Street in Dayton. The small bar and grill grew into a full-service restaurant, and it has been managed by Fred Fiebiger since 1977. Fiebiger and his wife purchased the restaurant in 1998. In April 2008, the Fiebigers announced they would close the North Main Street location and relocate.

Grub Steak will become at least the third Dayton-area restaurant that had been in continuing operations for more than 25 years or more to close within the past year, following the closings in early 2012 of Benham’s Restaurant in Dayton and l’Auberge restaurant in Kettering.