April 2013
| Business World Magazine | 135
It has been said that without passion all
would be ineffectual, and indeed, it is Ed
and Dan Dunn’s passionate reverence for
coffee roasting which has prompted popu-
larity and increasing market proliferation
of the café franchise known as Dunn Bros
Coffee. Described as “really fanatical coffee
enthusiasts” by Dunn Bros President and
CFO Kim Plahn, Ed and Dan Dunn set out
to change the coffee consuming world a little
more than 25 years ago, and the fact remains,
this company has helped transform lives in
degrees that most patrons might not even re-
alize.
To put that in proper context, Plahn ex-
plains that Ed and Dan drew inspiration
from the burgeoning array of coffee hous-
es catering to aficionados in Oregon. The
brothers, being more connoisseur than ca-
sual consumer, noticed that too many of
these operations relied on blends that had
been ground together and packaged so many
months previous to actual preparation as to
negate the appropriate pleasing of the pal-
ate, or to put it plainly, they lacked flavor. So
in 1987, after arriving in Minnesota, Ed and
Dan went on to establish the first Dunn Bros
location on Grand Avenue in St. Paul. Hav-
ing procured a 12 kilo Probat roaster along
with the finest of fine coffee beans, they im-
mersed themselves in the artisanal, in-house,
craft of roasting and refused to compromise
on quality. As Plahn explains, in a manner
likened to that which customers encoun-
ter when walking into a bakery where fresh
bread is being prepared, the Dunn Brothers
wanted their store to be enticingly instilled
by a similar aromatic aesthetic. Coffee lovers
soon clamored to the store and the sheer ex-
tent of their demands ultimately forced the
brothers to begin serving brewed coffee as
well as espresso.
