C Fleck wants everyone to have a good morning every morning, so he created Fuddle Duddle Coffee Co. to help people start their day with a great cup of coffee. He has always had an interest in coffee, so despite being a co-owner of Old Bakery Beer Co., he added working in a local coffee shop to his life in 2020 in order to absorb coffee roasting opportunities. After his self-imposed apprenticeship, he decided he was ready to launch his own brand.
C is married to Lauren Rogalsky who is also a co-owner and graphic designer for Old Bakery Beer, and she joined her husband in creating the coffee venture. The company is named after something silly her father used to say in French when she was a little girl. Along with their dog Dudley, who is the star of the brand’s Instagram page, they launched Fuddle Duddle in November 2024. “It was an interesting year to start a coffee company,” C chuckles wryly. “There were record-high prices for coffee.”
The couple made it work even with soaring wholesale prices. They now sell whole-bean coffee that is roasted and packaged in-house at Old Bakery Beer in Alton, Illinois. Lauren Pattan, who is also a co-founder of the brewery, admires the work C is doing with Fuddle Duddle.
To her, collaborating with C on coffee was the obvious choice. “We have a lot of space in the brewery, so it made sense to add a roastery out there.” It also made sense because adding a roastery brings more people to the brewery. “The feedback has been really great about the quality of the coffee they’re producing,” Lauren continues. “C cares so much about the quality of it and is very driven and makes sure that every roast he puts out is as high-quality as it can be.”
C roasts a white label blend, the Old Bakery Beer Breakfast Blend (or the OBBBB for short), as well as a variety of single origin coffees. He drinks one of these every morning in his own kitchen. “There is something to the ritual of brewing coffee that I really like,” he said. “It’s a contemplative thing.”
This article appears in February 2026.