Although Raffi refused to try the grits, he says, the Creole clown was thrilled.

“He was like a seal basking in the sun,” he remembers. “We joke that after eating he was a more well-tuned, oiled machine on the streets.”

The grits and Creole coffee have now run out at Leo’s, and Richie plans to set aside the rest of the spices in memory of his friend.

On good business days, the clown would replace whatever music was playing with Louis Armstrong and ask Raffi to count the one-dollar bills he had accumulated. Often, he remembers, the act could bring in $50 in only a few hours.

“He was a master,” Raffi says. “He looked at being a clown as a business.”

While waiting for his dinner to cook, Rlickman would sometimes step outside, start whistling and tipping his hat. By the time his dinner was done, he’d come back nearly $10 richer.

When the restaurant was busy he’d pitch in, helping to clear plates or scrub down the tables, and sometimes he would even bring in tourists to eat at the diner. The clown, who Richie Bezjian describes as somewhat of a food connoisseur, particularly loved the fresh berries he cooked into his pancakes.

“He was a walking advertisement for me,” the chef laughs. Yesterday, in memory of his friend, he wore a pair of black and white checked pants the clown had given him as a gift. During the winter, Rlickman wore a matching pair under his costume to keep warm.

Rlickman remained in costume for his meals and would simply take off his large red nose when he wanted to chat.

In fact, the first time the clown walked into Leo’s Place without his makeup, it took Raffi Bezjian a few minutes to recognize his friend.

“I said, ‘Put your mask back on, you’re ugly,’” he remembers joking. Rlickman responded with a deadpan: “I know I’m ugly.”

Bezjian’s favorite photograph captures Rlickman about to shake hands with W. Mitt Romney outside the State House, teasing the gubernatorial candidate about whether a clown like him could get a job in Romney’s administration.

Rlickman’s signature is scrawled across the photograph, above the words, “Leo’s Diner did not endorse Mitt Romney but did endorse the clown!!! (Perry the Hobo).”

Bezjian peers at the photograph, which generally hangs on the restaurant wall. He misses the sight of clown, he says.

“He was so colorful,” Bezjian says, comparing the clown’s attire to the American flag.