What You Didn't Know About The First Dunkin' Donuts
If you're a regular Dunkin' customer, you might know more than most about the international coffee and donut chain. While you might assume the first location was in Boston if you did happen to know that the chain hails from Massachusetts, it's actually from Quincy, the hometown of John Adams and John Quincy Adams, as well as John Hancock. Apart from historical figures, the city was also home to William Rosenburg who was a shipyard worker during World War II (via The Travel).
After some time, Rosenburg found he and his friends didn't have a place to go for a quick snack or coffee in the area, so he started Industrial Luncheon Services — an early take on the food truck. Rosenburg and his co-workers could initially get sandwiches, coffee, donuts, and other snacks there, but eventually he realized coffee and donuts made up half of all sales. Upon learning this, Rosenberg opened the Open Kettle, where he only sold coffee and donuts. This became the framework for Dunkin' Donuts. One more observation, Rosenberg noticed customers "dunkin" their 10-cent donuts into their five-cent coffee, which finally helped him make the jump to opening the first official Dunkin' Donuts location in 1950.
The original store is still a blast from the past
Believe it or not, the original store has seen very few changes over the past 70 years, so it maintains much of its retro look. Customers who visit the original Quincy Dunkin' Donuts location today will find classic stools in the original Dunkin' colors and donut-shaped tables. There's also black and white photos of the original shop, as well as a plaque that details the Dunkin story.
Today, the chain sells around two billion cups of coffee each year, which means that around 60 cups of coffee are sold every second. If that doesn't sound like enough coffee for you, around 2,000 beans go into every pound of Dunkin' Donuts coffee. The company is so committed to quality, coffee experts who work for the chain taste about 200 cups per day to ensure Dunkin' Donuts' coffee tastes just right (via Dunkin' Donuts). Though the chain may have come from humble beginnings to serve a shipyard, it has certainly grown into a worldwide empire.