Daily Grind closes South Grand drive-through location
Feb. 25—A coffee stand on South Grand Avenue in Pullman has closed less than two months after a Greek restaurant opened on the same property, which caused traffic issues for both businesses and forced the hand of the landlord.
The owner of Daily Grind, Tami Grady, was informed last week her business needed to vacate the drive-through coffee stand she has operated at 1350 S. Grand Ave. for about a decade.
"Things happened that are out of our control," she said.
Craig Neill, who owns the South Grand Avenue property with his wife, said complications arose because of the early success of Yia Yia Nikki's, the restaurant that opened in January on the same property.
Neill said Yia Yia Nikki's drew so much traffic that the cars clogged access to both the restaurant and Daily Grind.
Neill said Daily Grind chose to operate on a month-to-month lease, and he did not want to invest in a new driveway if the business did not accept a longer lease. That entire lot will now belong to Yia Yia Nikki's.
"Without a long term lease from Daily Grind, we made the difficult decision to ask them to leave so that our tenant with a lease can expand and reach their full potential," Neill wrote in an email.
Neill told the Daily News over the phone that nobody foresaw these problems with traffic and regrets that a Pullman business had to close.
Neill approached the Pullman Public Works department about the possibility of adding a new driveway to deal with the high traffic.
Pullman Deputy Public Works Director Clayton Forsmann confirmed the request.
"The owner of the property did reach out to us in late January to inquire about the process to modify the driveway, in an attempt to make things work better, however no plans were submitted to begin that process," Forsmann wrote in an email. "We did let them know the process and that we were supportive of working through the available options to try and improve the functionality of the two businesses."
The owner of Yia Yia Nikki's chose not to comment on the issue.
Grady said despite what happened to Daily Grind, she does not want the community to be upset, especially during a difficult pandemic that has already caused anger and divisiveness.
She expressed gratitude toward the Daily Grind's customers. Grady said the community continued to support the business even during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thanks to that support, she never had to lay off workers.
Those workers will relocate to Pullman's other Daily Grind location on North Grand Avenue. She said the added workers will lead to faster service at that location. She is also planning to expand the hours of operation to see if the community responds positively to the change.
This is the second Daily Grind location to close in the past year. The Daily Grind coffeehouse on Pullman's Main Street shut its doors in April.
Anthony Kuipers can be reached at akuipers@dnews.com.
