A coffee and a doughnut once cost 15 cents at the Quincy shop that became Dunkin’ Donuts. William “Bill” Rosenberg charged a dime for the coffee and a nickel for the doughnut. The name above the business was Open Kettle.
That was 1948. Two years later, Rosenberg renamed the shop Dunkin’ Donuts, giving a fairly literal name to the business of selling something you could dunk in your coffee. The location at 543 Southern Artery is still operating, making the starting point of this enormous chain an ordinary place to stop for breakfast.
Coffee was one of the reasons Rosenberg opened the shop in the first place. He had already watched factory workers buy it from his food-service business, alongside the doughnuts that would eventually go on the sign.
Before Dunkin’ Donuts, there were lunch trucks
Rosenberg was born in Dorchester in 1916 and left school in eighth grade to help support his family. During World War II, he worked at the Hingham Shipyard. Afterward, he started a business selling coffee, pastries, and sandwiches to factory workers.
He called it Industrial Luncheon Service. Eventually, converted telephone-company trucks carried the food, with stainless-steel sides that opened for service.
According to Dunkin’s account of its founder’s life, coffee and doughnuts brought in 40 percent of the business’s revenue. Rosenberg decided they deserved a shop of their own.
Open Kettle opened in Quincy on Memorial Day weekend in 1948. The company’s historical summary records those early prices: five cents for a doughnut and ten cents for coffee. Customers could sit down with their order, and Rosenberg offered far more doughnut varieties than the few commonly sold at the time.
The family business gets bigger
Dunkin’ began franchising in 1955 and reached its 100th restaurant in 1963. That same year, Rosenberg’s son Robert took charge of the family’s collection of food businesses at 25, shortly after graduating from Harvard Business School.
It wasn’t a matter of inheriting a successful formula and leaving it alone. In a later interview about running the company, Robert described restaurants that had expanded into hamburgers, hot dogs, and broader breakfast menus. Store sizes varied considerably.
His team narrowed the business back to coffee and doughnuts, concentrating on a small, 20-seat shop rather than trying to serve every possible meal. He also acknowledged making mistakes later, including pursuing growth that distracted him from the core business.
The younger Rosenberg led the company for 35 years. His account includes both the early success of that narrow menu and the trouble that followed when he became more concerned with rapid growth and the company’s stock price. Coffee and doughnuts had been the original opportunity; keeping the company focused on them took work.
Munchkins, Japan, and a much longer menu
The chain’s first overseas restaurant opened in Japan in 1970. Munchkins followed in 1972, adding doughnut holes to the menu more than two decades after the Quincy shop adopted the Dunkin’ Donuts name.
Bagels arrived in 1996. Coffee acquired more options, too: hazelnut and French vanilla were introduced in 1995, and a new espresso lineup followed in 2003. The company’s published timeline puts the launch of “America Runs on Dunkin’” in 2006.
The scale is now far beyond anything suggested by a single Quincy storefront. Parent company Inspire Brands lists more than 14,200 Dunkin’ restaurants worldwide. Dunkin’ also has a charitable organization, the Joy in Childhood Foundation, which supports children facing hunger or illness.
The doughnuts stayed. The name got shorter.
Dunkin’ announced in September 2018 that it would drop “Donuts” from its branding beginning in January 2019. The company explicitly tied the name change to its emphasis on beverages and quick service.
It kept the pink and orange colors and familiar lettering. Doughnuts remained on the menu. Customers who already shortened the name didn’t have much adjusting to do.
Coffee had helped justify Rosenberg’s first shop back in 1948. Seventy years later, the company was making sure the sign didn’t suggest that doughnuts were its only business.
Visit the original Quincy location
The Dunkin’ at 543 Southern Artery remains listed in the company’s current store directory. Check its location page for current hours before making a separate trip.
It has been remodeled, so don’t expect an untouched 1950 interior. Dunkin’s account of the original store’s renovation describes modern beverage equipment alongside diner-style countertops, displays about the restaurant’s history, and an exterior sign retaining the Dunkin’ Donuts name.
You can see where the business began, read a little history, and order breakfast. The full name is still on the sign. The nickel doughnuts are history.