LA GRANDE — The lunch crowd in downtown La Grande will grieve a little on Friday, Dec. 22, when Joe Beans Coffee closes its doors for the last time.

Al and Colleen MacLeod — community boosters, musicians, serial entrepreneurs and on-and-off-then-on-again owners of the popular eatery and gathering place at 1009 Adams Ave. — are retiring. They swear they mean it this time.

“I just need a few years where if somebody tells me to do something and I don’t feel like it, I can just say, ‘Heck, no,” Colleen MacLeod said with a laugh, at the tail end of yet another busy Joe Beans lunch rush.

Back in the 1980s, the MacLeods got their start in the food service industry with a mobile lunch wagon, feeding hungry workers at local plants and mills. Next, they opened Highway 30 Coffee Company on Washington Avenue in downtown La Grande. Later they owned and operated Joe and Sugar’s, a restaurant and coffee house on Adams Avenue.

They started Joe Beans in 2010, offering lunch fare like sandwiches and soup, fresh baked pastries and, of course, coffee brewed from the beans Al roasts at their Summerville home.

Roasting beans has always been one of Al’s passions, and Joe Beans coffee is widely regarded as some of the best around.

“Food service is rewarding in that it’s stable, but there’s not a huge profit margin. You won’t get rich,” Al MacLeod said. “The coffee roasting always was a boost for the business.”

Not long after they established Joe Beans the MacLeods decided it should be something more than just a restaurant. An adjacent retail space was vacant, so they took that over. They knocked a hole in a wall and created a big doorway.

With completion of the remodel, that doorway opened into a big dining room. At one end, their son, Gabriel, built a stage.

Al MacLeod is a singer and musician who plays under the name “Too Loud” MacLeod. Colleen MacLeod shares his interest in music. They hosted jam sessions on that stage. There was a monthly show that spotlighted the music of a particular well-known artist or group, like Jimmy Buffet or the Drifters, Al said.

Just as musicians are always in search of the right sound, the MacLeods were in search of the right vibe for Joe Beans Coffee. They aimed to give the place a sense of community, and they believe they succeeded.

“It’s a clubhouse, and everybody’s a Mouseketeer,” Colleen MacLeod said.

The MacLeods’ high regard for community has always stood out.

Colleen MacLeod served 12 years as a Union County commissioner, even as she took care of business at Joe Beans. Al, with his guitar and his voice, has been a constant high-profile presence through the years at local get-togethers, festivals and concerts and the like.

Both say they feel most fortunate to have been part of the downtown La Grande scene for so many years.

“Customers we knew way back then come in now with their kids, and even their grandkids,” Colleen MacLeod said.

Added Al, “It’s repeat customers. You get to know people, their families, their children. You get to know their lives.”

The MacLeods retired for the first time in 2020, selling Joe Beans Coffee to Kody Guentert, who renamed the restaurant Brother Bear Cafe.

Guentert’s tenure was short lived, however, and the MacLeods resumed ownership in 2022.

“He needed to get out, so we took it back,” Al MacLeod said.

Now, the MacLeods say, the time is right to retire again. This time, there are no new owners waiting to take over.

“You could say we’re entertaining offers, but there haven’t been any,” Al MacLeod said.

Though the MacLeods are leaving the business, they’re not going far.

“We’ve got 40 acres in Summerville. Retirement will be just staying home and taking care of it,” Colleen MacLeod said.

Kim Metlin, a longtime regular customer, had lunch at Joe Beans Dec. 14. As he paid for his meal, he spoke up for those who have enjoyed the food, the coffee, and the social whirl at Joe Beans over the years.

“There are many, many people who are going to miss Al and Colleen, yet again,” he said.