Notable alumni | Brandon Del Grosso: People, coffee and culture

May 11, 2015
50 Year Issue

Evan Musick
[email protected]

Brandon Del Grosso combined his passion for coffee and history and turned it into a business.

Del Grosso, who graduated in 2004 with bachelor’s degree in history, owns Switchback Coffee Roasters, one of Colorado Spring’s premier coffee businesses.

“History has been a passion of mine, people and cultures,” he said.

Specifically, he’s interested in people’s values and “what makes them tick.” To Del Grosso, coffee has a large part to do with the way people live their lives.

Del Grosso said his dream started while he was attending ministry school in Portland, Ore., which had a thriving coffee scene.

“Why is there not that kind of scene here?” he asked.

Del Grosso said his business began in a small shop in a garage with family, friends and people on Facebook. But, people had to drive down an alley to find them.

Two years later, the shop was moved to a location in Old Colorado City with a front facing store and sign. For the past year and a half, Del Grosso has located his operation just east of downtown Colorado Springs.

“It’s a lot of friggin’ work,” he said.

“But it’s so fun, because of what we create as a community space, the interactions we get to have with people,” he said.

Del Grosso’s coffee supplies major shops such as The Wild Goose, Peak Place Coffeehouse and Fifty Fifty Coffee house, which Del Grosso also owns.

Del Grosso offered advice for current students.

“It’s OK to walk out with a degree, still not knowing what you’re going to do,” he said.

“Have a dream, start pursuing it. But it may look very different than what you actually thought it was going to look like,” Del Grosso said.