25 thoughts on “To Drive All Before Them”

  3. I usually prefer Caribou Coffee, if only because their woodsy, lodgy interiors seem more inviting and comfortable. To me, Dunn Bros stores are a bit too sterile.

  4. I’m a Dunn Bros. fan, too – and our CD committee is meeting at one downtown Wednesday night.

    I was a big fan of Caribou until the original owners sold to a Bahrain firm. A good friend who works at Shari’ahbou is quitting over their increasingly rigid (and silly) rules.

  5. Dunn Bros stores are a bit too sterile.

    The newer franchises that are located in new construction are fairly uniform. The older sites like the Minnetonka shop, or the one downtown near the Central Ave. bridge have character.

    I stop at the one in the North Loop mentioned in the article frequently. It’s not bad, but the building has a funny odor that isn’t masked by the roast coffee smell.

  6. The Dunn Bros by us got taken over by a cadre of unfriendly, almost angry lesbians. They closed about 1.5 years after that. They even were in a “partnership” with the Brueggers next door, and you could freely walk between the two stores without going outside. Bruggers is still there, and still busy.

  7. . The older sites like the Minnetonka shop, or the one downtown near the Central Ave. bridge have character.

    Yes. I love the Freight House (First and Central), the original Grand Avenue store, Minnetonka, the Roseville Library location (sterile, yes, but wonderfully convenient and rockin’ wifi), 34th and Hennepin, the one on Uni in Dinkytown…

    …what am I forgetting?

  8. There’s a fairly new one in Duluth inside a new log cabin. I think it’s on London road, just south of the end of I35.

    The Minnetonka library has a good one, but they had to get rid of their roaster because it filled the entire building with a strong roast coffee smell. Apparently, some people don’t like that smell.

  11. Mitch, what are you doing in soul-killing Minnetonka, what with it’s ticky-tacky houses and Eisenhower cookie-cutter conformity man?

    A guy can’t even get a decent Oaxacan taco there.

    Heheheh…

  12. Mitch, what are you doing in soul-killing Minnetonka,

    Working at a wallet-filling job, back then…

  13. So I had an idea for a Dunn brothers franchise that would just have drive up windows. One side would be an express lane for just coffee (no f’ing sprinkles), and the other side would be for the $5 lattes and such (the sucker lane).

    I’d call it ……. “Dunn in a Hurry”

    wadda you think?

  14. One side would be an express lane

    A friggin men.

    I go to the one downtown by my office nearly every morning. One cup of light roast – that’s all I want.

    And the three people in front of me always order skinny organic soy floppaccino steamers with one egg and a garlic spritz, one splenda/one Equal/one sugar, whipped yogurt not cream, caramel not chocolate shavings, hold the crostelle.

    They’ll have three people behind the counter building the damn lattes with mauls and anvils, while all us just-plain-coffee people wait and stew and, half the time, say “screw it” and go grab office coffee.

  15. a Dunn brothers franchise that would just have drive up windows

    Saint Paul’s big casualty lately: “Java Drive”, a drive up only coffee joint at Snelling and Marshall, closed.

    Decent coffee. Fast. Drop dead cute chick in the booth.

    Perfect start to the morning. But since I dno’t drive to work anymore, I don’t think I’d been there since last November.

  16. Saint Paul’s big casualty lately: “Java Drive”, a drive up only coffee joint at Snelling and Marshall, closed.

    No surprise really. It only catered to people driving north. On Snelling. In that specific area.

  17. 95 stores? Wow. That surprised me. Meanwhile, management at Caribou Coffee is running that ship aground. You’d think fifteen years is long enough for Caribou to make a profit. Which leads me to this prediction:

    Dunn Brothers buys Caribou Coffee.

    You heard it here first.

  18. Am I losing what little mind I have left or was the original Dunn Bros on Marshall just east of Snelling? that where i remember going in 1988 or so.

  19. jroosh: you better not get into making too many predictions anytime soon! 🙂

    Caribou is publicly traded with a market cap. of ~$125,000,000.

  23. No doubt Caribou is not doing well on the stock market, but it will be a long time (if ever) before Dunn’s has the ability to round up financing to buy a publicly traded company…

  24. Bill must mean the one at 36th & Winnetka. I miss that place.

    I’m close by and miss that one, too. I frequent Mountain Mudd on 42nd now, with a drive-thru and friendly, family-owned staff (and tasty, Greek items on the menu).

    Nice to know that a Dunn Bros is nearby on Winnetka and Hwy. 55.

    Word has it that Starbucks is eyeing property almost next door to MM and the Caribou on 42nd.

  25. No surprise really. It only catered to people driving north. On Snelling. In that specific area.

    Yeah, not perfect placement, although you could get there from Marshall.

    Worst problem? They never had more than the one girl in the booth. If someone ordered a latte, it could be a long, long wait.

    Fulcrum,

    Dunn’s might not have the ability to round up that kind of capital, but roosh knows his money. We shall see.

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