A new jazz venue is coming to Uptown in Minneapolis

With the dust finally settling on Hennepin Avenue’s reconstruction, musicians soon will settle into a new home for jazz in an old building along Uptown’s main thoroughfare.

Brownstone Jazz Club has been announced as an incoming tenant of a historic one-story brownstone building at 2756 Hennepin Av. in Minneapolis, next door to Isles Bun & Coffee. That stretch of Hennepin just recently opened after a year-plus of reconstruction.

The intimate music club is on track to open in December or in early 2026. It will be run by a veteran R&B singer who lives nearby and said he “wanted to give musicians somewhere in this area to play.”

“I believe in the revitalization of Uptown and think this place can play a big role,” said Johnnie Brown, a singer originally from Mississippi who’s been active in the Twin Cities music scene for about 15 years.

Known for staging tributes to R&B greats like Barry White and Luther Vandross at venues including Chanhassen Dinner Theatres, Crooners and the Dakota, Brown was getting coffee at Isles Bun & Coffee earlier this year when he mentioned to a friend that the vacant space next door “would make a really nice club.” The friend knew the landlord, and the seed was planted.

“The idea just took off from there,” marveled Brown, who admitted, “Owning a club was never really a dream of mine, but now it’s become my vision.”

Brown’s longtime business manager, Hernitta Moore, also will serve as Brownstone Jazz’s operational manager. She said high-end cocktails and “finger food” will be on the menu alongside jazz and R&B music five nights a week, plus a Sunday gospel brunch.

They’re bringing in another Minnesota music veteran, Jeff Taube, to serve as a talent booker. Taube has worked as a promoter and manager with bands including the International Reggae All-Stars and Mint Condition and lately has been booking at the reborn Cabooze.

Moore expects it to hold about 140 people for shows, though its legal capacity is still pending. That puts it midway between two other Minneapolis jazz clubs in size, the larger Dakota and smaller Berlin, the latter of which has become a popular addition to the North Loop since its February 2024 opening.

Members of Brown’s own group, the Johnnie Brown Experience, often will serve as the house band for a rotating cast of guest singers, Moore added. As for how often Brown himself will perform there, the singer said, “I’m going to keep performing all over town.”

“I want others to perform here,” he firmly added.

Once a hub for bars and live music spaces, Uptown has regained some of its old nightlife mojo in recent years via such music venues as the new Green Room and the remade Uptown Theater and Granada Theater. It still has a long road back to nighttime revitalization, though.