It's last call, for now, at famous Cliff House

Rosemary Hubbard, her husband and their son drove up from their San Mateo home Tuesday evening to watch the sunset at Cliff House while they slurped down bowls of clam chowder.

As of Wednesday, they won't be able to do that anymore - at least for the foreseeable future.

In an unexpected turn of events, the famous San Francisco Cliff House restaurant was ordered to close after dinner service ended around midnight on Tuesday.

The restaurant and bar, a popular destination for tourists and locals alike with its fine cuisine and stunning views of the ocean, are concessionaires of the federal Golden Gate National Recreation Area. And like so many businesses on park land across the country, they are required to close during the partial federal shutdown.

The 150-year-old San Francisco icon was closed for a bit last week, but stubbornly reopened on Monday and Tuesday. Then the National Park Service caught wind of the defiance and ordered it closed again.

"That's outrageous! Are you serious?" Hubbard said as she walked out of the restaurant, the sunset glazing the windows behind her. "It is very stupid! Why are people deprived of a job? Why do the rest of us have to stop enjoying the parks?"

Hubbard wasn't alone in her outrage at missing out on the $10 endive salad or the $27 mahi mahi.

"You're kidding me," said Ken Evans, who was visiting from Visalia and stopped by the Cliff House to take in the view. "You know what, I would stay open if I were them. You can't close these things down."

Barring an eleventh-hour break in the federal logjam, most of the restaurant's 170 employees will start going without paychecks Wednesday. And this time, the closure will last for the duration of the federal shutdown and will cost the restaurant $10,000 a day.

Officials with the National Park Service didn't return calls seeking comment.

It was unclear whether the restaurant's chess move would influence similar challenges from other federal park service concessionaires such as Crissy Field's Warming Hut, which also have been ordered closed.

"As a successful, independent, privately owned business that does not depend on any tax dollars or federal funding, the Cliff House must have income," the restaurant's owners, Dan and Mary Hountalas, said in a statement. "Having been shut down for four days, the Cliff House has already assumed considerable financial loss," including maintenance, insurance payments and previously incurred food costs.

Unused food that would otherwise have gone to waste was donated to local charities.

Late Tuesday, as a smattering of diners and drinkers enjoyed the last glow of the fall sunset, staffers at the restaurant were telephoning anyone with a Sunday brunch reservation and telling them they'll have to get their eggs Benedict somewhere else.

Will Kane and Paolo Lucchesi are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. E-mail: wkane@sfchronicle.com, plucchesi@sfchronicle.com