It was last call for Wunderbar last week. The Old Strathcona venue was about to be squeezed out of the Whyte Avenue live music scene when it failed to make its rent, again.

"I had resigned myself to the idea that that was what was happening," co-owner Craig Martel told CBC's Edmonton AM on Tuesday.

Wunderbar was a staple of Edmonton's live music scene for five years. (CBC) "The other day our landlord just finally hit a point where they had enough of our not having rent for them, and told us it was our last day there," he said.

Selling enough drinks to pay the rent has always been a problem for the bar over its five years — one it's never been able to figure out.

"Live music is a tough sell," Martel said. "I don't think any of the venues that do it are doing particularly well.

"You're facing a crowd that is often young. Some just come to see the show and won't spend any money at all otherwise."

Also, people don't go out to see live music seven nights a week, he said.

But that was just fine with Martell and his partners.

Craig Martell, co-owner of Wunderbar, says running the live music venue has been a labour of love. (CBC) "It's been a labour of love," he said. "Anyone who's been following our business for the last number of years knows we've always operated and never made a profit on our business.

"It's just not the nature of it."

He told his customers he was at his wits end but would figure something out, "which in my mind was trying to think of someone who has enough money to lend it to me."

But it was suggested the Wunderbar turn to its loyal customers for the money, those people who have been coming faithfully over the years.

'Not something I'm comfortable with'

"It's not something I felt particularly comfortable with," Martell said. "At the end of the day, we're a for-profit business and to reach out to our clientele for charity is something that didn't sit well with me."

That's despite the GoFundMe campaign that raised $14,000, something that still shocks Martell..

"I didn't think anyone would give. It's an interesting feeling, all these people are … they care so much about the place.

"So many people have met all of their friends there and have grown so much inside of that building.

"They don't go there anymore necessarily, but they know it needs to exist for a new generation of people to keep coming through."

However, Martell has been in the business long enough to realize that if you can't cover your costs with, well, the cover charge, it's the business plan that needs to change.

"To believe that after us being open for over five years now, that there's going to be a way where we magically come up with a way to become profitable when we never have been ...?

"Maybe someone else would be able to do that. I don't know if I have it in me."