From coffee shop to social hub

WASHINGTON-- While people may talk about the change that needs to happen in their community, this 23-year-old Washington native put his words into action by opening a coffee shop that has more to offer than a caffeine rush.

Kevon King, a graduate of Woodrow Wilson High School, is one of the owners of The Village Café located in Union Market in Northeast.

King owns The Village with Mahammad Mangum and Ryan Williams, his two best friends, also graduates of Wilson.

“He always kept his grades really good and set his standards really high despite anything he went through, so I knew he was going to make something out of himself,” Mangum said of King.

The three friends didn’t want The Village to be your average grab and go café. It has a lot more to offer serving as a social hub focused on food, entrepreneurship and creative innovation.

This social hub idea sparked from King’s passion for giving back to the community.

“When I went to Wilson, I went into their international studies program because I wanted to do something with international business,” King said. “But then, I really started digging into community service which is something I used to do with my grandmother.”

Growing up, King spent a lot of time doing community service in Southeast Washington with his grandmother who was unable to work due to her health. He used to volunteer sorting clothes and giving out cans of food at various community centers in the Wards 7 and 8 areas where he grew up.

King found a love for community work that followed him to college.

“I went to Virginia State for a year and I was in a work study program with First Baptist Church in Petersburg,” King said. “I worked with kids and I have a mentee who still hits me up and from then on I told myself that I wanted to start a community center.”

When King returned home from college he didn’t know how to turn his passion into reality. He had worked in food service management since he was 15 so he was certain of his business management skills.

His passion for opening a community center never left him and that is when his best friend Williams, approached him with the idea of The Village Café.

“I was starting my own restaurant in Southeast, and Mahammad was working on his multimedia profile and we were always coming back to each other, but we needed one more piece to the puzzle and that was Kevon,” Williams said. “We always knew we wanted to do something together and creating a village where we could all flourish in our fields was the answer.”

When Williams and Mangum approached King with the idea of the café, King saw it as his opportunity to create the community center space he envisioned in college.

“Kevon is the business director, so he makes sure all our business relationships are sustained and he’s sort of the spokesperson of the group,” Williams said describing King as the “hard-nosed” guy of the group.

Added King: “I help bring entrepreneurs, chefs, food businesses and creatives to not only sell their products but be able to bring them in and share their story,” King said. “When you come to The Village, you feel like it’s just as much yours as ours.”

The café serves coffee from Southeastern Roastery and food from DC UrbanGreens produce. The Village also provides other services that separates them from a normal coffeeshop.

“In the back is the Eden board room where we have comedy shows, spoken word and pop up shops,” King said describing the layout of the café. “I’m working on partnering with Gallaudet University, so we can offer sign language classes and setting up something with our neighbors, Politics and Prose, to do a children’s story time.

The Village was King’s perfect opportunity to fulfill his dreams of opening a community center while combining his interests of business in the place where he grew up, which he described as not always having adequate resources.

“I see The Village growing into a staple in the city and being expanded into underserved areas of the city within two-three years,” King said.

King also has a passion for public and motivational speaking and he aspires to create a platform one day to spread his message that “you owe it to yourself to do whatever you want to do in life.”

He wants to inspire people by telling his story, and right now that’s served with a bright white smile, dimples and a cup of coffee.

A 23-year old business owner, Kevon King (center), serves his first customer of the day at The Village Café located in Union Market. (Photo by Jaha Knight)