Bipeds of Brookland: Jesse Brown

Jesse Brown grew up in LeDroit Park and first came to Brookland when he was 14 and walked a friend home. “I loved Brookland when I saw it, like a hidden gem.” He bought a house here 31 years ago and has been a member of the community ever since.  

Jesse opened up a coffee shop, Brookland Cup of Dreams, in 1997 and is now the sole proprietor of Serendipity Jazz Coffeehouse on 12th St which serves coffee and food and offers live Jazz Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday evenings.

By day Jesse is an electrician who trained here in DC and is a member of the local union. “Electrical is something I love. That’s not work, that’s passion. I’ve been doing it for 35 years. I learned from the best.  I learned when we didn’t have all these power tools and all the gadgets so you had to know what you were doing.”

He says that despite the media hyping for violence, he remembers growing up in DC “a southern place… polite with an education. Real Washingtonians are polite and hospitable. We reach out, like me, I can’t walk across the street without speaking to everybody. We help each other.  If I see a guy broke down, I pull over to give gas to a total stranger. That’s how DC was, that’s the DC I grew up in.”

Jesse likes to watch old Westerns on TV when he is not working. He calls himself a social hermit. “I socialize well,l but I don’t like crowds. I like going on vacation in wintertime, to a beach, because nobody is there.” 

Bipeds of Brookland: A weekly series introducing the people who make Brookland their home, one step at a time. Interview and photo by Tom Sabella.