With Acquisition in WA, Dillanos Plans Batdorf & Bronson Revival

The Dillanos Coffee Roasters (DCR) headquarters in Sumner, Washington. Courtesy photo.

Longtime Seattle-area wholesale roasting company Dillanos Coffee Roasters (DCR) recently acquired the West Coast business of Olympia, Washington-based Dancing Goats Coffee from previous owner Kaldi’s Coffee. 

The acquisition will soon result in the revival of the Batdorf & Bronson Coffee Roasters brand, which was folded into the Dancing Goats name in 2022.

“We’re bringing back the Batdorf & Bronson brand,” Dillanos Coffee Roasters Founder and Co-CEO David Morris told DCN. “That brand means a lot to Olympians.” 

Larry and Cherie Challain founded Dancing Goats as a single coffee shop in Olympia, Washington, in 1988. In 1990, the couple acquired their wholesale coffee supplier, Atlanta’s Batdorf & Bronson, founded by Dick Batdorf & Shannon Bronson.

Over the subsequent decades, Dancing Goats and Batdorf & Bronson operated as sibling brands under the Challains’ ownership, with roasteries and cafes in both the Atlanta and Olympia markets. 

A Batdorf & Bronson logo from 2017.

St. Louis, Missouri-based Kaldi’s acquired Dancing Goats in 2023, and will continue to own and operate Dancing Goats in the Atlanta area. Meanwhile, Dillanos plans to sunset the Dancing Goats brand in the PNW.

Kaldi’s and Dillanos have not disclosed the financial terms of the Olympia acquisition. 

Morris told Daily Coffee news that Dillanos will eventually shut down Dancing Goats’ roasting operation in Olympia, consolidating it with Dillanos’ existing roasting operations in Sumner. Meanwhile, the Dancing Goats Olympia cafes will be rebranded under the Batdorf & Bronson name. 

The tasting room at the Olympia roastery will remain tentatively open, while the Olympia farmers market cafe location will “certainly” remain open, Morris said. A third Dancing Goats Olympia retail cafe, downtown, is being evaluated, while the Bayview location is owned by a licensed partner and thus will remain open. 

For Morris, the revival of the Batdorf & Bronson name is something of a full-circle moment for specialty coffee in Olympia. 

“When we were just getting into roasting in 1992, and we were visiting their roasting facility, I said, ‘I want to be like this some day,'” Morris said. “We’ll continue to operate the exact blends they were operating before as Batdorf & Bronson.”

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