The end is near for one of Leslieville’s favourite coffee shops.

On Sunday, Grinder Coffee Gerrard will serve its last cuppa joe.

Owner Joelle Murray said she didn’t want to shut down her business, but after six months of trying to negotiate a new lease, she was left with no choice.

“The landlord doesn’t want to come to the table anymore. They were trying to increase my rent 2.5 times,” she shared during a recent interview.

“The legal fees were getting out of hand. (The lease being proposed) didn’t make the business worth anything. It can’t happen.”

Much to the dismay of her customers, Murray announced on Oct. 1 that she’s closing Grinder at the end of the month.

“It’s not how I want to go out,” she said.

The landlord for the Gerrard Street building couldn’t be reached for comment for this story.

“The outpouring of support has been amazing. Everyone is coming out of the woodwork offering support and ideas. The good that has come out of this is that we’re loved,” said Murray.

Five years ago, Murray, who lives in southwest Scarborough, and her close friend Scott Hunter decided to go into business together and open a café.

Sadly, less than a year later, Hunter was fatally shot while attending the Kentucky Derby.

Murray, who at that time had an infant daughter, was devastated, but decided to continue running Grinder on her own.

“I sat here and cried wondering what I’d done. I wondered if the business would make it,” she said.

Little by little, Grinder came into its own welcoming a steady stream of regulars and new customers.

Three years ago, Murray, whose background is in event planning and hospitality, launched a whimsical marketing campaign to get a movie star to stop by for coffee during the Toronto International Film Festival.

The first year, 2017, she tried — albeit unsuccessfully — to entice British actor Idris Elba to visit the café.

“He never made it,” said Murray, who printed a head shot of Elba and glued it to a stick for customers to take selfies.

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Undeterred, she tried again the following year. This time, Murray got customers to vote on who they wanted to try to persuade to stop by. Canadian actor/musician Ryan Gosling was chosen.

“We upped our ‘marketing budget’ to $50 and made a half-body cardboard cut-out and he showed up,” she smiled.

“It was an amazing boost for business. That went really, really viral around the world.”

This year, Murray went even bigger with the goal of drawing megastar Tom Hanks to Leslieville and succeeded.

Among other things, the Tom Needs Grinder social media campaign featured a video she created with the help of good friend Rod Rosenblatt to help Hanks navigate the TTC to her café.

“It was super funny and caught his attention. On Day 7 of (TIFF) he showed up at the end of the day,” enthused Murray, who had already left, but chatted briefly with Hanks on the phone.

“People came in for weeks because they had seen and heard about it.”

At this point, Murray said she isn’t entirely sure of her next steps, but one thing is for certain: she can’t see herself returning to the corporate world.

For now, Murray said she plans to take a little time off and visit family in the United States for American Thanksgiving.

“I’ve got some irons in the fire,” she said.

“Running your own business is a 24-7 thing, but I’ve never had more job satisfaction than this place and I’ve met the coolest, most interesting people,” she said.

“So many of my customers have now become my friends. Without the community this wouldn’t have been possible.”