If you've ever stopped for coffee at Dunn Brothers Coffee in West Bend, there's little doubt you've met the charming and always friendly Al Jung! Al is the owner of West Bend's Dunn Brothers franchise, and he always goes the extra mile to greet his customers with a smile.
Outside of the coffee shop, Al is very involved with the West Bend community. From helping youth organizations to participating in events like the West Bend Winter Warm Up, Al believes helping others makes his home community a better place to live and own a business.
He also makes really great coffee and avocado toast.
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?
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Okay. It is our coffee roaster. Oh, that is
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Yeah. Or the stuff you get at the, you know, the local grocery store.
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Oh,
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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.
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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.
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started doing this. How long ago did you start this Dunn Brothers franchise?
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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.
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And then what brought you here to West Bend? Was it the franchise location availability or did you come here before that?
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How did, how did that selection process go when you ended up on Dunn Brothers?
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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.
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They run far down south as Texas and out Iowa. It
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
