Local Business Focus: Red, White, & Brew and Elite Protection

When Bob Anderson moved to Dayton six years ago, he brought nearly five decades of business experience and knew he would start another enterprise in town. Yet, he did not predict that within a four-year timeframe, he would run two wildly different operations – Elite Protection and Red, White, & Brew – with similar goals for both: provide great service, treat customers with respect and focus on building supportive relationships rather than transactions.

Since October 2024, Red, White, & Brew has served Carson, Lyon, Douglas and Storey counties. Anderson posts the coffee trailer’s weekday locations via social media, plus is open for private and weekend events. He works with local Northern Nevada roaster Blind Dog Coffee – known for its quality, organic beans – and offers everything you would find at a big box coffee shop. From lattes, mochas and macchiatos to iced versions of nearly everything on the menu, plus tasty extras like muffins, turnovers, biscotti and cookies.

However, it is not just about brewing a cup of coffee. For Anderson, it is about the exchange of abundance: “There are three kinds of exchanges in this world: a criminal exchange, when you pay for something and get less than you paid for. There’s a fair exchange, when you get what you paid for. Then there’s an exchange of abundance, and that’s what we believe in—where you pay for something, but you get more than what you paid for. I don’t charge for extra shots. I don’t charge for syrups. And the [coffee] is great – it’s organic, it’s clean. I always give [customers] a free cookie when I’ve got them…I’m really satisfied with what the public is getting.”

Still, the last year has not been easy. With the investment in the trailer and monthly expenses adding up, Anderson wants to remain affordable for customers, but he is hoping the community will continue to show up to keep the coffee flowing.

His support for and commitment to community is not new—it has been a running theme in his life and career. A proud veteran, Anderson served six years in the U.S. Army, teaching close-quarter combat and working in high-risk warfare. Though he planned to stay in the service longer, he could not pass on the opportunity to be honorably discharged and open his first martial arts school in 1976. Once he did some personal protection work, he started to see a new path forward.

“I thought, ‘You know, I really enjoy this,’ it was kind of my soul to take care of people,” Anderson explained. “I did some research and found this company out of Aspen, Colo…I sold everything I had, left all my friends and put my eggs in one basket.”

After graduating, he applied to personal protection positions but had to go back to teaching martial arts to pay the bills. Then in March 1985, he received a call from an ex-Secret Service agent for an executive protection job and never stopped working after that.

Anderson has worked as a bodyguard for high-profile clients like Harrison Ford, Placido Domingo, Franco Zeffirelli and Chuck Liddell. He has faced threats from the KGB and IRA, plus he has been shot twice and stabbed once – all in the name of Honor, Integrity and Selfless Service.

“I like the challenge of keeping things status quo – you counter the boring aspects of [the job] by making sure it stays that way,” he asserted. “It takes a lot of planning, there’s so much evolving…usually what the client appreciates and one of the few things they see is getting them from A to B smoothly.”

Anderson’s experience in protection, firearms and martial arts led to operating more than 20 self-defense and personal protection training centers in Washington, California and now Nevada. Since 2020, Elite Protection in Dayton has provided an array of services from concealed carry weapons (CCW) training, tactical skills and safety procedures to self-defense workshops, anti-bullying courses and Protect the Castle classes, working with River Vista Fitness for larger class space. Anderson is also proud of the $40,000 simulator he purchased for students to practice interactive scenarios, “so they can see that decision making is not as easy as they might think and the good guy has a lot longer To Do list than the bad guy.”

Anderson knows that after a CCW course, students are often wary about practicing with their guns. He hopes to start a weekly tactical mastery group that performs and builds on lessons learned during the foundational training.

“If I give you a box of tools and you don’t know how to use them, all you’ve got is a box of shiny tools,” he stated. “The tactical aspect will keep people alive a lot longer than the technique. It’s really the mindset, how you respond to sudden threats – primal flinch versus combat flinch – being able to rewire yourself because you get one chance at it, that’s it.”

Elite Protection also works with Sanctuary Defense, a nonprofit initiative enabling houses of worship and schools to create safe and comfortable environments through onsite assessments, gap analysis and training. Right now, Anderson is offering the assessments for free ($5,000 value) so asks that community members talk to their church and school administrators because this type of evaluation can save lives.

“We do infrastructure risk assessment – we’ll go in, point out the weak spots in security so they can tighten it up,” he explained. “The liability would be huge if something happened and [authorities] found out they didn’t do a survey, didn’t do any training.” When living in California, his company conducted active shooter response drills for upwards of 80 schools from San Diego to Sacramento.

Even with all his ventures, Anderson’s heart is still in connecting with people, whether it is over coffee, in a classroom or at a special event. For now, his days start early, brewing coffee from 6 a.m. until the lunch slowdown, then shifting gears into his training and consulting work. Regardless of which business hat he is wearing, Anderson brings the same veteran-driven commitment to service. But to keep his businesses thriving, he’s counting on the support of his Northern Nevada neighbors.

“I just want to give people more than they expect,” he said. “And I hope they keep coming back for it.”

Follow Red, White, & Brew Coffee on Facebook for trailer locations and other information. Visit www.bobandersoneliteprotection.com for personal defense training and contact details.