ABOUT US

Fortress Cafe

Meet Owner Duncan Bone

Fortress Cafe LLC was founded out of the need to have a place for Fortress Coffee Co. to have its fresh roasted coffee brewing at all times. Owner Duncan Bone launched the Cafe with the blessing and encouragement of friend and brother-in-law Thomas Hess, who owns Fortress Coffee Co. With their powers combine, a new local hub was born for the great people of Jackson to experience.

The two families work together to provide a great space and product for community to flourish. Bringing people together is our passion and the goal of the Fortress businesses is to fuel community through great coffee and quality quick bites. Having been a personal trainer since 2014, Duncan brings a health perspective to the food options as well as a desire for quality cheat day options like cinnamon rolls and frappuccinos.

Duncan and his wife Elizabeth have four young boys and love the Jackson community. Let's meet for coffee sometime!

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Locally Roasted

Fortress Coffee Co was founded by husband & wife team Thomas & Margaret Hess, seeking to provide only the freshest roasted coffee, which is carefully crafted and roasted in super small batches to guarantee freshness.

Thomas is the brains behind the business & the one who's passion sparked this whole thing. He's often up late roasting away so that you can enjoy delicious, FRESH coffee. Margaret is all things related to design, social media, marketing, support staff & proud wife. What started out as an obsession & passion for coffee turned into a little side hustle that we can't get enough of. We are based in Jackson, Michigan.

We offer various origins and blends of coffee for your drinking pleasure. All of the coffee we sell is small batch, handcrafted, and roasted to order. Listed on each bag is the specific roast date so you know exactly when your coffee was roasted. We also provide information (courtesy of Cafe Imports) about each origin so that you know more about the coffee you are drinking. Why drink coffee that was roasted who-knows-where and sat on a shelf for who-knows-how-long when you can have all the freshness and traceability that you get from Fortress Coffee?

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As a kid I used to tell people, “When I grow up I want to be a chef.” I liked cooking -- the idea of taking items that were not tasteful individually then making them collectively tasteful was very fulfilling for me. And to be honest, I liked to eat… a lot. However, as I grew older and took more sciences classes I started to lean more towards a career path involving chemistry. Like cooking, the idea of making changes to create the desired outcome seemed like a fun and challenging game to me. As I visited various companies who hired chemists and chemical engineers, I realized the business and operation side behind the chemistry is really where I wanted to be. Roasting coffee is a perfect blend of all three. We started this home based business where I create edible chemistry and I am loving every second of this trifecta.

- Thomas Hess