Listening to Brooke McDonnell wax on about the notes in her espresso while sitting on the steps of Pioneer Square in Portland during the early 1990s, Helen Russell, who was enjoying her mocha with the whip cream piled high, suddenly had an idea: let’s open coffee shops in San Francisco.
“You love coffee and I love business,” said Helen turning to Brooke. “We see this whole coffee thing happening. Why don’t we put together a business plan and open up a couple of coffee bars in San Francisco?”
The couple was young and in love having met several years prior at the Dinah Shore Weekend in Palm Springs, California. That led to Helen moving from Boston to Marin in the North Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area, where Brooke, settled after a childhood of globetrotting with her parents.
If Brooke didn’t really love Helen before those magic words, she loved her even more at that moment, and even more now 26 years later as they will wed in a couple of weeks. The couple celebrates their 27th anniversary in June.
