The Mall of America's Famous Dave's barbecue and a sister restaurant will soon close out their tills for the last time at the mammoth retail and entertainment complex.

Mall spokeswoman Sarah Schmidt said a lease agreement reached in October calls for a March 1 move-in by two new dining options in that third-floor space that Twin Cities-based Famous Dave's shares with the Kokomo Island Cafe. The two had been operating there since 2003.

The new businesses, one of them making their initial entry into the Twin Cities market, will open in late summer, Schmidt said. Their identities will be revealed later.

Franchisee Tim Buffham, who operates the Famous Dave's and the Kokomo Island Cafe with his wife, Pat, initially said Tuesday morning that any departure "has not been confirmed. We're in the middle of negotiations with the mall."

However, by early afternoon, Buffham acknowledged that "we are going to close in the near future. We have not set a date yet."

The imminent closing of Famous Dave's at the mall was met with disappointment at the restaurant's corporate headquarters in Minnetonka.

"With Minneapolis as our hometown, we consider the Mall of America as an iconic location," said Famous Dave's spokesman Richard Pawlowski. "We would be disappointed if Famous Dave's didn't have a presence there."

Last fall, the company suffered a setback when the first Famous Dave's, in Hayward, Wis., was leveled by a devastating fire. That restaurant, still owned by company founder Dave Anderson, has yet to reopen on the site, where it debuted in 1994.

"Plans are underway" toward a resumption of business in Hayward, Pawlowski said, but "nothing is finalized on that location's future. We are trying to do as much as we can to help Dave."

Famous Dave's owns 50 of its restaurants, and another 138 are franchises. They are located across the United States, along with two in Puerto Rico and one in ­Winnipeg.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482