Interviewing Brad Hopkins is a bit of a touch and go affair, but business is just too good for it not to be. Operating his coffee shop “Bean, Coffee for a Cause” out of a tollbooth-sized building within the Easton Farmer’s Market complex, Hopkins darts between his business and the shaded benches where he spends his downtime, alternating between conversation and commerce.
Only in business since April 2011, Hopkins started “Bean” with what he calls the ethic of the “philanthro-capitalist” business model. Out of every month’s sales, He gives 10 percent to a local non-profit. Starting with the Maryland Affiliate of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure in Easton, Hopkins then targeted the Talbot Hospice Foundation, to which he presented a check for $1,350 last month.
“Our fund-raising partner, Friends of Hospice, gets many donations from local businesses as sponsorships for their fund raiser, ‘Festival of Trees,’” Talbot Hospice Foundation associate director Kate Cox writes in an e-mail.
“A lot of [the donations] are $1,000+, but most of them are probably larger businesses than Brad’s. I certainly wouldn’t want to say it is unprecedented, because I just don’t know. What I do know is that Brad’s business model is unusual to allow such generous philanthropy.”
His latest beneficiary is the Chesapeake Film Festival.
“When I started this business I hadn’t drank coffee in years,” says Hopkins, only to zip back into the booth. With its specialty mill work and four-gabled roof, “Bean” looks like a play-house version of many of the houses in the Easton area, windvane and all. In the patio facing the market, lap top toting Eastonians would come and go, snagging WIFI and espresso, tickling their iPhones, all with the smell of fresh roasted beans filling the air.
“I’m back,” says Hopkins taking a seat. “So, what I wanted to do, in addition to making a living, was to create an engine for giving. I’d read about it, but not done it. The idea is to not do giving as an afterthought, but to make it an essential component of the business plan, just as essential as finding and purchasing extraordinary coffee and being here 12 hours a day, six days a week.”
Hopkins hasn’t always been this sort of businessman. After leaving college in his native Colorado, where he was a member of the University of Colorado-Boulder’s swim team, He picked up a camera and started documenting swimming professionally. Throughout the late 1990s, during what he describes as the “digital camera revolution,” many great “name-brand swimmers” were captured through his lens, including a young Michael Phelps.
Now, Hopkins hopes to focus mostly on his new business, whose relative success he attributes partially to the philanthropic values at its core.
“I’m not a Christian, but you might say that I live my life according to some religious tenets. Giving back to the community is I think a big part of that,” he says.
As swimming season draws near, Hopkins will have to fight the temptation to return to his old craft, which still seems to have some allure to his imagination. Regardless, he has a business to run, and with it, new products to introduce.
“Here, try this,” he says, breaking off a piece of what looks like a sugary waffle cone. A few chews reveal not a sweet, but a savory flavor, with bits of bacon and herbs baked in.
“It’s the beginning of my ‘savory go-cone’,” he says, his eyes wide with WillieWonka enthusiasm.
“I’m going to team up with local restaurants to develop different fillings so I can have different varieties.”
“So, like a savory ice cream cone with curry, thai, warm ingredients?” he is asked.
“Yes,” he says, “Something along those lines, the ultimate winter comfort food. It’s also gluten-free.”
Brad Hopkins has lived in Easton since 1985. His wife is a seven-year breast cancer survivor. She works fulltime for the Susan G. Komen breast cancer fund.
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