The generals will find new homes; the swords will be surrendered; and the Confederate artillery major's tunic will be retired from the dining room.

On June 4, the 52-year-old Confederate House restaurant will be rechristened the State Grille.

"We're going to raise a new flag," said co-owner Frankie B. Mandola, whose customers had raised objections to the restaurant's name.

Mandola, co-owner Joe Butera and managing partner Tom Leman had struggled with the decision to keep the name since purchasing the restaurant in August 1999 from Betty Edge, widow of Confederate House co-founder Gordon Edge.

"We thought about changing it right away, but being native Houstonians, we decided to see," Mandola said. "But it wasn't us. Where I'm coming from is that we've outgrown the Confederate House. Our service, our attitude isn't the Confederate House, it's the State Grille. It's time to move on, to a new era. We've paid it respect; it's part of our history, part of our lives, but it's time."

Across the country, Confederate images have come under fire in recent years.

The NAACP raised the threat of an economic boycott in Mississippi last month after voters there overwhelmingly decided to keep their 107-year-old state flag with the Confederate emblem. The boycott tactic was used against South Carolina, where a Confederate flag flew for decades over the Statehouse dome until it was taken down last year.

In Georgia, lawmakers this year agreed to shrink the Confederate emblem on their state flag to a dollar-sized symbol, one of five historic flags to be displayed below the state seal.

Other controversies have erupted over Confederate symbols at schools. At Houston's Robert E. Lee High School, the administration, faculty and students are creating a new image. The school is now known simply as Lee High School, and it is seeking a new logo and a mascot to replace "Generals."

"Our business has been great, but when friends pulled you over to say (that they couldn't host a board of directors meeting at the restaurant) because of the name, you start thinking," Mandola said.

Mandola and Butera also plan to sell the Civil War memorabilia decorating the restaurant's wood-paneled walls, including a color engraving of Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson appraised for $2,500, a red-sashed Confederate uniform replica with original parts ($5,000) and a set of scabbards ($4,600).

"Everybody wants a Confederate House charger," said Mandola, referring to the mint-green plates decorated with magnolia flowers, the restaurant's emblem.

The Confederate memorabilia will be replaced with Texana art and the new restaurant symbol will be the outline of the state of Texas.

The name change brought mixed reactions from the Edge family, who ran the Houston institution for half a century.

"It's a wonderful idea. If I were Frankie B., I would have changed the name from the beginning," said Betty Edge Luedemann, who has remarried.

"It's a new era; what's gone is gone. Gordon is gone for one thing, and he was the restaurant. You can quote that in capital letters because it was never the same after he died."

Her stepson Bill Edge, general manager of Simposio restaurant, reacted differently.

"The family would never have changed the name," Edge said.

He said his father and a family friend chose the Confederate House name because it signified Southern hospitality.

"You know that Spanish saying `my house is your house?' Well, they thought Confederate House would mean the same thing. It never meant any more than that."

The Confederate House has regularly hosted politicians, celebrities and Houston's wealthier diners.

President Lyndon B. Johnson dined there. Years later, so did George and Barbara Bush, and then their son, George W. Bush, and his fiancee Laura, Edge said.

But no one caused a stir like Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry. "People gave him a standing ovation each time he walked through," Edge said.

The Confederate House was the closest that a public restaurant came to private membership. A Houston oilman dining there Wednesday night compared it to the TV show, Cheers, the bar where everybody knew your name. The restaurant's loyal customers followed the establishment from its original location on San Felipe to a second location on Westheimer and its current home on Weslayan at West Alabama.

For regulars, the menu was often unnecessary -- they knew what they wanted before they sat down. The original menu with its traditional Southern specialties was created by Texas food legend Helen Corbitt. To hear some patrons tell it, the place was practically built on Confederate Fried Ribeye Steak and the Wilhemina salad.

When the Confederate House sign comes down in June, the restaurant will debut a new menu.

"We'll still take care of our Confederate House customers, the old guards. But now they're not the only ones there, there are young people in there, and they're looking for something different," Mandola said. "About 95 percent of my customers agreed this is the right thing."

But they still will be able to get the famous Confederate Fried Ribeye Steak with mashed potatoes, fried corn and green beans. Only under a different name.