On a Friday morning at six o'clock, the sign on the door of Flynn's News in South Berwick reads, "Yes, we're CLOSED." But that doesn't keep out 82-year-old Charles Boyd. A lifelong resident, Boyd has been coming to Flynn's for "a good many a year," as he puts it. Every morning, Tuesday through Sunday, finds Boyd sitting at the counter drinking coffee with two or three other long-time customers.

"I like it here," he says. "I've always liked it."

Flynn's doesn't officially open till 7 a.m., a choice owner Tim Hall made when he bought the landmark diner seven years ago. But he makes an exception for Boyd and the other Flynn's veterans, for the sake of tradition.

"I couldn't not serve them at six," Hall says.

After seven years of early mornings, though, Hall is currently negotiating the sale of the building and looking to turn the business over to new hands, a deal that could be concluded any day now.

At six a.m. in South Berwick (pop. 6,671), Main Street is quietly moving with the early commuters who have been coming to town in greater numbers in recent years. A few cars pull into Dunkin' Donuts for coffee. The row of brick buildings that make up the downtown shopping center is still dark. Across the street, Green Eggs and Ham, a relatively new breakfast spot, has put out their "open" flag.

The Flynn's building, a two-story white clapboard structure, has been watching over this scene since the early 1800s, when the town center shifted up-river, according to Paul Colburn of the Old Berwick Historical Society. By chance or by fate, it was one of the few buildings to survive the fire of 1870 that destroyed much of the town's center, and it housed the town post office and a bakery during that decade.

When Colburn came to South Berwick, Flynn's was more of a variety store with a lunch counter. He says it's only within the past 20 years that it has been run as a restaurant. The gift shop, occupying the right half of the store, now sells old records, postcards, and mullet hair-care packages.

Hall, who has worked a number of jobs in bars and restaurants, bought Flynn's in August of 1997, partly to cut back on his commute. He had been driving into Portsmouth from South Berwick to work at the Elvis Room, the coffee house/alternative music club in Portsmouth that closed in 1999. But when previous Flynn's-owner Frieda Hunter decided to sell, Hall took the opportunity.

"I originally wanted to run it as a coffee house," says Hall. "But I decided it would be wrong to change it. I have given it my own interpretation, though."

What change has occurred happened gradually.

"This used to be a place where people came for cigarettes, coffee with powdered cream, and lottery tickets," says Hall. "It took me six months to turn them onto half and half."

Hall also turned them on to new music-ranging from classic jazz to a mixture of first wave ska and reggae-and has changed the menu, offering special items like omelets with candied, maple-chipotle sweet potatoes and avocado.

"They've got some interesting flavor combinations," says Scott Allen Costigan, a photographer from South Berwick who has been coming to Flynn's since he moved to town four years ago. "Sometimes they're a bit much, but the huevos are safe."

Costigan is eating the huevos rancheros, a mixture of scrambled eggs, cheese, salsa, black beans and sour cream served on a tortilla. It's one of the more popular items on the menu, according to Isabelle Charle, who has worked at Flynn's for the past two summers.

"It's sort of a perpetual special," she says of the huevos.

"I love their omelets," says Gayle Gary, a schoolteacher from Berwick who has been eating at Flynn's for four years. "It's 'the way life should be' with ketchup."

The customers rave about the food, but it's not the only reason they choose Flynn's.

"Food is just half the reason," says Victoria Roach, a former employee who is eating breakfast and visiting her old co-workers. "The atmosphere is the other." Roach worked at Flynn's till a year and a half ago, when she began working at Curves up the street. When asked why she left, she replies, "I was having too much fun here."

Even Fran and Mike Murphy of Bradenton, Fla., make a point of stopping by once a year when they visit their son in Eliot. Mike, who used to work for the Maine State Lottery when the couple was living in Maine, has been coming into Flynn's for 20 years.

"You used to be a lottery location," says Mike to Tim, who is behind the counter.

"What?" asks Tim.

"You used to be a lottery location," says Mike, louder this time.

"What? I'm going on vacation?" says Tim, moving closer to the table.

"You need a hearing aid," says Fran, smiling.

Despite Flynn's popularity, Tim Hall has decided it's time to move on.

"I still love the place," he says. "I'm just tired."

Tim used to wake up at three in the morning to bake the breads they serve at Flynn's. Over the years, he has relegated some of the responsibility and can now sleep until five, when he walks downstairs from his apartment above the restaurant.

While the property is being negotiated, Tim is reluctant to discuss who the new owners might be. He will say that the building will undergo renovations, making what is now the gift shop into office space. The restaurant side will continue to operate as it is now, but neither Tim nor the new owners have found someone to lease the space.

"It's time for change," he says. "It's time for someone with fresh ideas. I'm holding the baton in the air and hoping someone will continue the race."

Whatever the future holds, people will be sad to see Tim go.

"Tim is a big part of Flynn's," says Evan Mallet of Berwick. "(Without him involved), I'd almost want the name and concept to change, like retiring a jersey. No one else can wear that number."

As property values along the coast rose through the '90s, more and more people, including artists and young families, were drawn to South Berwick by the affordable housing. This has changed the character of the quaint village. Flynn's manages to bridge the gap between what some see as the old South Berwick and the new.

"Flynn's was one of the first things to change in town," says Amy Miller, owner of SoBo Books and Coffee, which opened next door to Flynn's three years ago. "But even with the newer clientele, it retained the qualities of the local gathering spot it's been for years."

But each new arrival brings further change. Since Hall bought Flynn's, two other restaurants have opened on Main Street, the dinner restaurant Caf? Brio and Green Eggs and Ham, a breakfast/lunch caf? across the street from Flynn's. Each expands upon the change that Hall ushered in seven years ago, and the community seems to be making room for the new faces.

"We're totally different from Flynn's," says Mark Ranieri, who opened Green Eggs and Ham in April 2003, drawn to South Berwick by its new "SoBo" identity. "I'd say we're only in competition because we're across the street from each other. He has his crowd, and I have mine."

Elsewhere in South Berwick and neighboring Rollinsford, the influence of Flynn's and Hall can be seen in two new businesses opened by former Flynn's employees.

Liz Wilson, who worked as a waitress at Flynn's for two years, opened the Market on Main Street with her husband Bruce in July. Their aim is to provide a one-stop shop for the community of South Berwick, which didn't have a market or grocery store before Liz and Bruce opened up in July.

"My husband and I saw a gap in the town," says Wilson. "We're trying to fill it."

The Wilsons try to keep things as local as possible, offering beef from Maine cows, ice cream from Sanford, and milk from the closest dairy farm.

"There's a one dollar deposit on the bottle," says Liz to a customer who is buying a bottle of chocolate milk. "But if you bring the bottle back, you'll get your dollar back." It's like a scene from the Patty Duke Show, but with all-natural potato chips and gelato.

The Market on Main Street sells almost everything you need, but there's one thing you won't find.

"We don't serve coffee," says Liz, pointing out that there are other places downtown where people can get a cup of coffee. "We try to work with the other businesses in town, not compete with them."

Phil Hughes opened the Black Bean Cafe across the river in Rollinsford in December 2003.

"If Flynn's were the Mary Tyler Moore Show, I'd be Rhoda and Liz would be Phyllis," he says, referring to the classic '70s sitcom and its two spin-offs.

Before opening the Black Bean with Elizabeth Williams, Hughes had been the baker for Flynn's, working from one to eight in the morning, three days a week, to provide the breads, sticky buns, muffins and scones that are so popular with Flynn's customers. Now, as co-owner and head chef of the Black Bean, he creates lunchtime specials like the curry chicken salad, served on your choice of bread or a wrap, on a bed of diced cucumber and romaine lettuce, as well as doing the bulk of the baking for Flynn's.

"Going off on my own was definitely something I needed to do," says Hughes.

He's interrupted by a customer on her way out the door.

"Bye, Phil," she says. "Excellent sandwich."

"Thank you," says Hughes, waving. "See you later."

He waits till she is out the door.

"I need to hear things like that," says Hughes.

Though they've only been open less than a year, Hughes says the town has been receptive and business is good, thanks in large part to the number of artist's studios in the Salmon Falls mill building across the street.

Even though Hughes no longer works at Flynn's, he will be sorry to see Hall go.

"I think Flynn's will change after Tim leaves, and there will be a hole in South Berwick," he says. "But that hole was there seven years ago before Tim bought it. That's just change."

Back at Flynn's, Hall chats with some regular customers while trying to keep his black lab puppy, Mocosa, calm.

"What're you going to do?" asks one of the customers.

Hall shrugs.

"Move to Taiwan," he says jokingly. "Costa Rica. Who knows?"

He doesn't have any plans besides getting some rest and watching things move on.