Rebecca Skaggs, founder of Avenue Coffee, stood behind the cash register on her coffee shop’s final day and took customers’ orders for the final time.

“I know that what I created and what I helped nurture was beautiful and it did a lot for a lot of people,” Skaggs said. “I now feel a deep sense of loss and grief and a sense of loneliness because this whole community that I had access to is gone now.”

Avenue closed its doors forever on April 19 after financially struggling during the coronavirus pandemic.

Skaggs said the situation was out of her hands, but she’s glad she had the opportunity to build Avenue, a nonprofit business at 786 Echles St. near the University of Memphis that started from a Mid-South Christian College project.

“It took a global pandemic to shut us down,” Skaggs said.

Skaggs, 28, said she never thought the coffee shop would close so soon.

“I have met some of the most amazing people in my life at Avenue, who both worked behind my bar and were regulars at the shop,” Skaggs said. “The community that grew there over the years, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to find it in another place.”

The pandemic hit small businesses the hardest, according to the Federal Reserve.

A national survey by Main Street America said almost 7.5 million U.S. small businesses are in danger of closing due to the coronavirus pandemic, and 35.7 million Americans could face unemployment.

Avenue was one of the businesses to take a fatal hit.

Skaggs began planning Avenue Coffee in 2010 with other college students. For four years they discussed finances, location, demographics and the drink menu. They held a grand opening six years ago on April 25, 2014.

“Some of the most impactful conversations we’ve ever had in our lives took place in coffee shops,” the founder said. “We really believed in quality, so we wanted to do this well, and so we had professional barista training and did a lot of research and tasting.”

The coffee shop had a base menu of coffee and tea drinks. Once it opened, Skaggs said she and other baristas began inventing seasonal drinks by combining different flavors and adding puns.

She said her favorite drink was the “carda-mummy,” which consisted of coffee brewed with cardamom.

Along with creating new coffee drinks, Skaggs said some of her favorite moments at Avenue included spelling bees with stormtroopers, Super Smash Bro. tournaments, and serving to regulars who soon became her friends.

“Avenue is the people,” Skaggs said. “The close nature of our team and how tight-knit we are, that’s what Avenue was about, and that’s what I will forever cherish.”

Skaggs hired an array of baristas who became close to her, including Noah Randolph, who began working there in 2015 and eventually became the general manager.

“So much life happened there,” Randolph said. “It was a joy to see all that come to a peak.”

Randolph, 25, began working at Avenue to gain service hours for school and satisfy his curiosity for coffee art and lattes, but he found more there than he expected.

“We had a great community and they did their utmost best to keep us alive,” he said. “We would still be running had it not been for COVID-19.”

He said some of his best times were spent discussing coffee with customers, and meeting new people who would become regulars of the shop. Having access to coffee whenever was a bonus.

“Most of the time you act a part in a play, and no one realizes it, but you are putting on a show for the person in front of you ordering,” Randolph said. “You’re making sure they understand Italian words, seasonal drinks, feel at home, and everything in between.”

Randolph did whatever he could to welcome customers and keep the business alive, even as it got more difficult. He helped with financial work for Avenue. Sometimes it would cause him panic attacks and sleepless nights, but his good memories of the coffee shop outweigh the bad.

“I’ve slept so much better since it closed, but I’m gonna miss the people and what it did,” Randolph said. “It brought so many peoples and groups from so many backgrounds together, and I don’t see any kind of place that is doing that in Memphis. It’s sad.”