tom hanks tiff

Toronto cafe really wants Tom Hanks to visit during TIFF

A Toronto cafe known for attempting to garner the business of heartthrob actors during TIFF has set their sights on a new one-man demographic.

Grinder Coffee received a lot of attention during last year's TIFF when Ryan Gosling showed up to the cafe in person after a social media campaign for his business. Customers were thrilled even just to see the cardboard cutout of Gosling in the shop and take a selfie.

In 2017, Grinder attempted to get their first celeb into the coffee shop with Idris Elba, who, unlike Gosling, was a no-show. This year, they're focusing on more of an old school dreamboat: Tom Hanks.

They're already several days into the campaign and of course, have a Hanks cutout hanging at the cafe. Like the hashtag #ryanneedsgrinder, there's now #tomneedsgrinder aimed at Hanks.

There's an Instagram post for each day of the campaign: day one is five fun facts about Grinder, day two is a letter from Gosling, day three shows a Big-style piano in the cafe and day four mentions their affordable prices ("even the richest of rich and the biggest of big occasionally need to save a penny").

Owner of Grinder Joelle Murray gave customers a chance to choose between Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks for the focus of this year's campaign. "The criteria is always someone I want to have coffee with, it makes it easier for me to think of the posts," she says.

"Hanks was picked because most people who weighed in picked him. People came into the store and commented online. The campaign is going really well different from previous years as more people are following it, due to Ryan Gosling coming in last year of course. More people are sharing the posts and commenting in general."

So, when it comes to Tom Hanks' DMs, he's definitely got mail. Let's just hope the social media barrage doesn't make him sleepless in Seattle. You know, life is like a cup of coffee...ok, ok, I'll stop. Good luck, Grinder!

Lead photo by

@grindercoffeegerrard


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