Comma Coffee owner June Joplin’s journey along the yellow brick road up to 2025 Nevada Day celebration
June Joplin, proprietor of Comma Coffee celebrated its Silver Anniversary this Nevada Day of the popular downtown coffee shop.” data-medium-file=”https://i0.wp.com/www.carsonnow.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/June-Joplin-102425.JPG-2.JPG-2.jpg?fit=300%2C222&ssl=1″ data-large-file=”https://i0.wp.com/www.carsonnow.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/June-Joplin-102425.JPG-2.JPG-2.jpg?fit=780%2C577&ssl=1″ />
By Ronni Hannaman — On Nevada Day 2000, June Joplin’s sixth child was born, a reference to her beloved Comma Coffee restaurant that continues to shape her life. As her four sons and daughter grew, so did the coffee shop of which her children were an integral part.
Joplin has had a different Nevada Day theme to celebrate Comma Coffee milestones over the past 25 years. This year, she chose to reflect on following her personal yellow brick road by featuring the deeply symbolic Wizard of Oz. In 2020, it was “Alice in Wonderland.”
The theme is fitting for Comma Coffee’s Silver Anniversary in our Silver State. Joplin admits the journey following her yellow brick road hasn’t always been easy, posing challenges — good and bad — at almost every bend in the road.
Family is everything to Joplin who, before relocating to Carson City in 1998, was a stay-at-home mom immersed in the lives of her children and singing in the church choir, acting occasionally in local theater in Victorville, Calif.
She built Comma Coffee into a popular local artisan hangout. Then, at the age of 43, she decided it was time to literally find her voice beginning a new journey as a singer after a chance meeting with the members of the Brad Lund Trio, all of whom she knew separately, who were performing in the 2004 tribute by the Mile High Jazz Band to honor the 100th birthday of Count Basie.
After hearing the trio, she approached the musicians asking if she could join them as a singer. Joplin was an unknown. They were skeptical. After pressing them for an audition, they hired her on the spot stating, “Wow! Wow! She can really sing!” To accommodate their new singer, the trio became Moonlight Express. Later as the quartet whittled down to two, the prolific songwriter Bob Reid and Joplin began entertaining as “Bobby McGee and Me,” specializing in the tunes of the “Great American Songbook.”
The historic building that has housed Comma Coffee for the past 25 years has had many reincarnations and had been vacant for two years before Joplin discovered the empty storefront, sensing this building and the journey she was about to take was right for her at this time in her life. She remains convinced she and Comma Coffee are kindred spirits. Having no previous experience as an entrepreneur, she let her creative talents flow and listened carefully as the old walls talked to her over these many years.
In September 2010 on her 10th anniversary, Joplin wrote in her blog: “I always dreamed of being my own person. I always dreamed of creating a place where people felt loved and connected and welcomed and comfortable and important. I always dreamed of being a black jazz singer. I always dreamed of being the mother of a large family. I always dreamed of this life.”
Fifteen years later, she is still living her dream although she, like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz faced many stumbling blocks along her yellow brick road.
The black singer Grace Jones stated, “I just go with the flow, I follow the yellow brick road. I don’t know where it’s going to lead me, but I follow it.” That could well be Joplin’s mantra. Even the colors of the exterior of Comma Coffee, which she declares the building chose, speak to her continued inner growth: Yellow for optimism to light the uncertain path. Purple to reflect creativity, independence, self-discovery and resilience.
To Joplin, “There’s no place like home,” and Comma Coffee is that home where she is “most comfortable, secure, the best place to be no matter the circumstances.” Carson City is the family home of this self-proclaimed introvert, and the place she hopes to celebrate future milestones. She is grateful and delighted her family will be present to share this one.
Stop by Comma Coffee after the Nevada Day festivities to celebrate this momentous personal and professional milestone. Like Dorothy, Joplin learned that she could overcome all odds and will continue to grow her eclectic coffee shop welcoming all who come through her doors.
— Ronni Hannaman is the Executive Director of the Carson City Chamber of Commerce.
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