[00:00:00] Fuzz Martin: Thanks for listening to Fifteen Minutes with Fuzz. You could be sitting in your car listening to Sports Talk Radio right now, sulking over what happened this weekend in the NFL playoffs. Or You could be doing something positive with your life, and I’m glad you chose the latter. Thank you. My name is Fuzz Martin, and this show is about all of the positive people, places, and things here in Washington County, Wisconsin.
So far, most of my episodes have been about nonprofits and area events. Uh, however, I also like to focus on people who are doing great things in our community, whether they’re business owners, volunteers, uh, who knows, maybe a celebrity someday. Today I’m speaking with a person. I always speak with a person.
I’m speaking about a person. I’m talking to someone to learn more about them. If you’ve ever stopped for coffee at Dunn Brothers Coffee in West Bend, right on Paradise. There’s a good chance you’ve seen the smiling face of the owner, Al Jung. Al is a big supporter of community programs in pretty much anything that makes our area better.
And on today’s episode, I sit down with Al to talk about his business, how he got started, and why he has chosen to be so involved with the West Bend community. So with that, here’s Fifteen Minutes with Al Jung. On Fifteen Minutes with Fuzz.
Al, thanks for joining me today. So let’s talk first about Dunn Brothers Coffee. Can you give us a description of Dunn Brothers and why people should love Dunn Brothers?
[00:01:55] Al Jung: Dunn Brothers Coffee. Well, Dunn Brothers Coffee is a locally owned and operated coffee shop by me. The primary difference that you’re going to notice at Dunn Brothers is that we roast our own coffee.
[00:02:05] Fuzz Martin: Okay.
[00:02:06] Al Jung: Our goal, our mission, is to provide a quality product, exceptional experience when you walk in our door. And we want to create an environment where everybody’s welcome.
[00:02:17] Fuzz Martin: So when you walk in, there’s that big, is that the, is that the grinder that’s kind of on the counter
[00:02:21] Al Jung: there?
[00:02:23] Fuzz Martin: Quite a few people,
[00:02:24] Al Jung: uh, think that is a grinder, but it’s not.
Okay. It is our coffee roaster. Oh, that is
[00:02:28] Fuzz Martin: the roaster. Sure,
[00:02:29] Al Jung: sure. So here at Dunn Brothers, we, uh, we bring in green coffee beans and Myself or another one of the team members who are certified roasters actually roast that coffee. So, when we talk about the difference, fresh roasted coffee to coffee that you may get at a grocery store, we kind of compare that to freshly baked bread coming out of the oven.
Yeah. Or the stuff you get at the, you know, the local grocery store.
[00:02:54] Fuzz Martin: Well, there’s certainly different, like, aroma when you walk into Dunn Brothers compared to other coffee shops from that, uh, you, I think you can smell that. It’s, it’s that fresh stuff. Do you, do you also sell fresh roasted beans? If somebody like wants to bring those home?
Oh,
[00:03:08] Al Jung: absolutely. One of the next things, or the one of the first things you’ll see before the roasters are bean bar. So our bean bar is already stocked with, uh, one pound, pounds of coffee beans ready to go. We can buy it, you can buy it just as a pound of beans, or if you need it, um, ground, we’ll be happy to grind it for you.
[00:03:24] Fuzz Martin: Sure. And you do, you roast all those beans that are at the coffee bar?
[00:03:26] Al Jung: All those beans, everything in our shop is freshly roasted. You guys
[00:03:30] Fuzz Martin: offer all sorts of like different breakfast sandwiches and all that stuff too. And I know that those all always taste like you’re making them fresh too, right?
[00:03:38] Al Jung: They are.
They, all our food items are made fresh to order. Breakfast sandwiches, we have them on biscuits or English muffins, bagels, or Uh, we even also have gluten free English muffin that some people would like to, because they need it. Uh, so, uh, yeah, when you order it, we are in back, we’re making it fresh for you.
So, you can customize it, add, take away, however you like it, and we’ll make it for you.
[00:04:01] Fuzz Martin: What is your, and you’re there every single day, basically, right? What is your favorite thing on the menu?
[00:04:06] Al Jung: Well, you talked about the breakfast sandwiches, but we do have a couple of other items. One is an avocado toast, and that’s my favorite.
You can see me eating avocado toast very often. Another item that is very, very popular is our acai bowl. Okay. That’s kind of a berry mix, bananas, chia seeds, granola, and honey on top. And those would definitely be the top sellers right now, in addition to the breakfast sandwiches.
[00:04:31] Fuzz Martin: Let’s talk about how you got started.
started doing this. How long ago did you start this Dunn Brothers franchise?
[00:04:37] Al Jung: We have been open actually 10 years last September. Oh, great. It was our 10th year anniversary, but we were, me, our process as far as getting there started a long time ago. Probably pre college. Oh, really? Yeah. So, when I was in college, I can distinctly remember having a conversation with one of my friends.
I said, hey, you know, what are we going to do? You know, what are you going to do when you grow up, as you will? And you know, we were in school, so we went through school, and we said, you know, we’ll get out in the real world, get a real job, uh, you know, experience that, and so on and so forth. But at that At the end of the day, both of us said to each other, you know what, we’d like to own our own business one day.
So that was, that was the seed, if you will, um, and fortunately for me, it came to fruition. Where did you go to school? I went to University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign, down south.
[00:05:27] Fuzz Martin: And what did you go for?
[00:05:28] Al Jung: I was studying business and
[00:05:29] Fuzz Martin: economics.
[00:05:30] Al Jung: Okay. Yeah.
[00:05:31] Fuzz Martin: So business guy, wanted to start business. There you go.
And then what brought you here to West Bend? Was it the franchise location availability or did you come here before that?
[00:05:40] Al Jung: It was not. So we came, it’s 2022, so we came here probably about 21 years ago on a job transfer. Okay. I grew up in Chicago. Went downstate for school and then moved back to Chicago to work, and then from Chicago we came up here on a job transfer.
[00:05:55] Fuzz Martin: What kind of work were you doing before you opened the coffee shop?
[00:05:57] Al Jung: I was in retail management for about, well over 20 years.
[00:06:00] Fuzz Martin: When you decided you were going, I assume, did you decide you were going to open a franchise first? Or did you decide you were going to open a coffee shop and then started looking for franchises?
How did, how did that selection process go when you ended up on Dunn Brothers?
[00:06:13] Al Jung: I wanted to open my own business, number one. Number two was the decision to do a franchise or not. The benefits of a franchise, obviously, is the organization and the structure that was there for me. So I just happened to fall into coffee, met some guys who were doing it, and said, you know, it kind of fit.
I went up to visit them up in Minnesota, talked through it, we’d walk through it, and it was kind of one of those things that Say, boom, this is, this is the right fit for me.
[00:06:38] Fuzz Martin: Sure. How many Dunn brothers are there nationwide?
[00:06:41] Al Jung: Right now there’s approximately 70 Dunn brothers, mostly in Minnesota area. That’s the headquarters out of Minnesota.
They run far down south as Texas and out Iowa. It
[00:06:53] Fuzz Martin: seems like there are a few different coffee headquarters in Minnesota. Is there a reason for that or just coincidence?
[00:06:58] Al Jung: I think it’s coincidence.
[00:07:00] Fuzz Martin: What made you ultimately choose Dunn Brothers as a whole? What was the deciding factor for you there?
[00:07:05] Al Jung: It was the fit.
So I actually talked, we met with the two owners at the time, Skip and Chris, and just their philosophy on fresh roasted coffee, the philosophy on community. Philosophy on the freshness of the product. Um, those are the things that really sold me.
[00:07:21] Fuzz Martin: Speaking of that and the philosophy and the community and such, every time I’ve ever gone to Dunn Brothers ever, you have like the most amazing team of employees.
They’re, uh, always friendly and. knowledgeable and offer different suggestions for foods or drinks or whatever that might be. What is your philosophy on running your business and keeping that culture in your company?
[00:07:47] Al Jung: Well, I think that’s exactly right, Fuzz. It’s all about the culture. You know, I’ve been very, very fortunate in hiring and staffing.
I’ve said so many times, I’ve had the I’m the fortunate of having some of the best young people that in our community has offered to work for me, and I attribute that to their parents, number one, uh, number two, and all the people in their lives that are, give them a positive influence. We focus on training.
We focus on what our philosophy is, and really, again, they take it from there.
[00:08:16] Fuzz Martin: Are you at the coffee shop every single day?
[00:08:18] Al Jung: Uh,
[00:08:19] Fuzz Martin: pretty much. Pretty much? And, I mean, it’s, running a business is obviously a hard thing, but what makes you like to get up and get into the coffee shop every day?
[00:08:29] Al Jung: Boom. It’s Easy answer, the people.
Whether it’s the team members that are working for me, whether the people that are regulars that come every day, or just um, you know, first timers. Just a couple weeks ago, a lady in the drive thru window says, Man, you’re pretty exciting and happy. And I said, You know why? It’s because of you. Often times, you know, we are a reflection of the people that we’re dealing with.
So, if you’re happy and bubbly, and, Uh, you’re energetic, likewise, same thing will usually happen, and again, we’re selling coffee. Yeah, yeah.
[00:09:00] Fuzz Martin: There was one, uh, one day, just my little anecdote of Dunn Brothers Coffee, I had my youngest daughter, so this would have been probably six years ago right now, I, uh, I had come through the driver.
I was just me and her in the car, uh, came through the drive through, got a coffee. And then when I brought it into the car, I accidentally squeezed it while I was like juggling stuff. And just covered myself in coffee, you know, she’s an infant. So I grabbed her in a car seat and I came in. I’m just, I’m just.
Physically drenched in coffee. And I remember there was a regular at your store. He rides mountain bikes and I, uh, I don’t know his name, but he saw me and like went to, into action to help me get cleaned up and like make sure that she was taken care of so I could go clean up in the bathroom real quick.
And, uh, it was just, it’s one of those stupid little stories, but I just remember that one guy, I wish I knew his name, uh, I’d give him 50 bucks and tell him, thank you to this day. But just, uh, Customer in the store that was there and like super friendly and willing to help and I have seen him since and I’ve like I don’t think he remembers the incident, but I do.
How do you know he rides mountain bikes? I cuz he grabbed something from his truck He had some towels or something in his truck and he had a bunch of mountain biking stickers on the back
[00:10:15] Al Jung: That, my friend, was Gary Durian.
[00:10:17] Fuzz Martin: Okay. All right. Very good. Yeah. See, yeah. Uh, so Gary, thank you very much. You don’t know how much that meant on that day when I was having like a physical and mental breakdown because I was a new father covered in coffee, but it was, it was great.
So thank you, Gary. I should have asked you that a long time ago, Al. Speaking of community, you are involved in a number of different community organizations. What are you and your business involved with?
[00:10:43] Al Jung: Right now, really, we Actually, an event that’s coming up is the Downtown West Bend Association’s winter warm up.
So, primarily, that’s what I’m doing right now. Previous to that, I sat on a couple of boards. We have opportunities to make presentations at business forums, at high schools. And then, obviously, from a community standpoint, I love supporting. My primary focus is young people. So, a lot of things that happen at schools, you know, we make donations and things like that.
So, that’s primary. And, and really, you know, My goal or mission is not, not so much what we do, but it’s, it’s about promoting the positive things that are happening in our community. And then, obviously, you’ll see me, again, one of the primary things for me to open a coffee shop in West Bend was, I wanted to be the owner operator.
Yeah. So I’m there, this is my community, you’ll see me out there, um, Shouting from the rooftops and promoting things and, and participating events in our community.
[00:11:35] Fuzz Martin: Yeah, so I thought it was very interesting for you to participate in the West Bend Winter Warm Up, which, um, you, you were the promoter, you were getting sponsors.
I know they doubled, more than doubled the amount of sponsors they had this past year. It was interesting to me because you’re not a downtown business, but you’re promoting a downtown event. Kind of tell me your philosophy on that.
[00:11:56] Al Jung: Well, a lot of times, you know, I’ll see things happening, and it’s not a goal about downtown or which part of the, what community event it is.
It’s, uh, West Bend, right? So, again, for me to be a resident in West Bend, for me to be a business owner in West Bend is important to me. Nothing more than that. So, we can all recognize and promote all the positive stuff that’s happening in West Bend because it’s our community. Because that’s how we want our community, right?
Absolutely.
[00:12:23] Fuzz Martin: I think, and even just doing this show here, that whole positive message I think is why it was great to have you on, because I know that you’re a very big proponent of this, is there’s a lot of good stuff happening in West Bend, Washington County as a whole, and As much as we can shout it from the rooftops, people are going to want to live here, bring their kids to school here, open businesses here, come have dinner or a breakfast date or a, you know, a stay in a hotel and all those kind of things that I think we all collectively need to, everybody here in the county, need to do a good job of telling people all the good stuff that’s going on.
[00:13:04] Al Jung: Absolutely, absolutely. I think we should want to.
[00:13:06] Fuzz Martin: Yeah. Right. Exactly. I mean, this is, uh, before we got on, you kind of gave an anecdote of, you know, living in a neighborhood and you can be a good neighbor or you can be the complainer neighbor, but when everybody’s a good neighbor, there’s less stress. It is.
People want to be there. You know, there’s less contention and everybody’s doing better. Absolutely. Al, thank you for coming on the show today. Thanks for what you do for the community and we wish you the best of luck with Dunn Brothers and continued success and great coffee.
[00:13:35] Al Jung: It’s my pleasure, Fuzz. Thanks for having me.
[00:13:43] Fuzz Martin: At the end of the show, when I always say something like, if you know of anybody who might be interesting for the show, please reach out. I want you to know that I really mean that. Part of this show is really for me to learn about things that I don’t already know about. Yes, it’s a little bit selfish, but I learned, you learned, we all learned, everybody feels better, right?
And I want to step outside of my own little circle of knowledge, so I need you to tell me where to look. And selfishly, it’s also the hardest part of the show is booking guests. So, once you’re in front of your computer today, or you’re not driving anywhere and you’re on your phone, please email me, 15withfuzz at gmail.
com and just send me one name of somebody that I should speak to next, okay? Fifteen with Fuzz. Thanks again to Al Junk for joining me today. Thank you for listening and we’ll talk to you next week right here on Fifteen Minutes with Fuzz.
