Is it the end of Rick's at the market?

Rick Olivieri left his corner of the Reading Terminal Market yesterday without a lease, at times fighting tears, and promising to be behind the grill at Rick's Philly Steaks when the lunch crowds return today.

The predicted end of the long-running drama between Olivieri and management of the historic market came and went, as T.S. Eliot said, not with a bang but a whimper.

Olivieri's lawyer had sued to avoid eviction, but, as of late yesterday afternoon, there was no hearing and no court order. Market officials said they had not received legal service of the suit.

Management, meanwhile, said Olivieri's lease had expired and, as of this morning, he was illegally occupying the space he and his late father had manned for 25 years. But there was also no sign market officials would take immediate action to put Olivieri out on the street.

"We're going to take this step by step," market spokesman Kevin Feeley said. "Assuming that he is still there [today], he will be notified that he is not legally entitled to operate from that space. Then we're going to take the appropriate steps to remove him from that space."

Although Feeley would not elaborate, the legal eviction process would involve more time and legal effort than surrounding Olivieri's grill with Philadelphia sheriff's deputies.

"I'm going to be here tomorrow and Thursday and Friday and, I hope, the next 25 years," Olivieri said yesterday about 4 p.m. as he and his employees closed up shop for the day.

Olivieri, 42, one of the third generation of the South Philadelphia family that claims to have invented the steak sandwich about 75 years ago, has periodically been at odds with management of the nonprofit Reading Terminal Market Corp., usually in his role as president of the market's merchants association.

Olivieri has been involved since 2003 in talks with management about the terms of a new master lease for the market's 73 tenants. Olivieri, like many other tenants, had been on a month-to-month lease since early this year.

Still, Olivieri and other merchants were stunned when, on June 28, the market's board of directors voted not to offer Olivieri a new lease and confirmed that it had offered the space instead to Tony Luke, another celebrated South Philly sandwich maker known for his roast pork sandwiches and, yes, his cheesesteaks.

Both Olivieri and Luke have businesses at the Phillies' Citizens Bank Park.

Olivieri cried foul, calling the move retaliation for his work with the merchants' group; management said it did not believe Olivieri wanted a new lease under the new terms he had opposed, and said Luke's availability was the chance to bring in a "new face."

Despite support from fellow merchants and the public - 5,000 people have signed petitions - market management last Friday reaffirmed the decision to evict Olivieri.

By any other gauge, yesterday was a good one for Olivieri's business, reputedly among the best patronized in the market. Even as the grill was being cleaned and closed, people came up wanting to order. Olivieri said he sold 45 dozen sandwiches yesterday.

But Olivieri's mind was elsewhere, and he spent most of his last hour yesterday staring out the window onto 12th Street, answering his cell phone and occasionally talking with reporters.

Olivieri said he could not answer questions about the legal case - he had not heard from his lawyer - and the waiting and questions were plainly wearing on him: "This is really frustrating for me."

He also could not talk about his employees, some of whom had been with him for 20 years. He tried several times. Each time his eyes welled up, he wheeled around and walked away amid the upended stools and a photos of celebrities who once ate there.

Rick Olivieri in photos on the last day of his lease at Reading Terminal Market, at http://go.philly.com/ricksEndText