In Everett, Washington, there is a coffee shop in a strip mall that lives a double life.
By day, Butter Notes Cafe serves lattes and desserts to neighborhood regulars. By night, baristas light votive candles, musicians load in instruments, and the space transforms into a velvet-curtained jazz club.
Owner Sean Dokko, an ex-software engineer with a passion for jazz, is the visionary behind the hybrid business. Dokko took over the coffeehouse from his parents, remodeled, and then reopened it in early 2025 as a jazz cafe. Butter Notes Cafe, which also supports local artists and hosts community groups, has become a cultural hub in northeast Everett.
In stark contrast to the careful, intentional way he’s nurturing the space and community at Butter Notes Cafe, Dokko said he more or less stumbled into cafe ownership.
“It was very much an emotional decision to do it. It wasn't a rational choice. It came from my gut, and I just chased it,” Dokko said.
Something switched
Dokko was raised a “cello kid” and it wasn’t until 2019 that he fell in love with jazz. That year he started studying jazz piano with Seattle-based professional musician John Hansen.
“Something switched in me during that time in my life, and I all of a sudden really started to love jazz,” Dokko said. “I wanted to play electronic music, and then I was like, I should learn the theory of music, and then that segued into jazz.”
Dokko stoked his newfound obsession by attending classes and leading jam sessions at Jazz Night School, where he met the “majority” of his musical friends.
“I love their mission, and I think they do amazing things for the community,” Dokko said.
Meanwhile, in 2023, Dokko’s parents bought out a struggling coffee shop. A couple years later, it became clear to Dokko, the oldest son in a Korean-American family, that he should take the business over so they could retire.
“There's that whole Asian filial piety culture around the older son helping out the parents, and I did that in my younger years as a kid, and then now that I see my parents get a little older and they need a little bit more help here and there, I think there was a gut decision that I made,” he said.
Dokko left a job in tech to run the cafe, which he also set up for live music. He’s designed the cafe with music in mind, installing sound paneling and bringing in instruments, including an upright piano he often plays while still dressed in his coffee apron.
“I really wanted this space to reflect a piece of me, and that's how the jazz element came to be at the cafe,” Dokko said.
Strip mall delight
Butter Notes hosts jazz performances and jam sessions on weekends. In July, KNKX attended a Saturday night performance featuring student musicians from the South Seattle nonprofit, Jazz Night School.
Musicians played in the center of the room, in front of the long coffee counter and pastry case. To each side, audiences sat at tables or on couches, sipping cabernet and nibbling on “croffles,” a hybrid croissant and waffle dessert.
Along with making it feel cozy, Dokko had a specific venue experience in mind as he designed Butter Notes Cafe: the surprise of walking off a busy Manhattan street and down a narrow staircase into Smalls, a hip, gritty and intimate basement jazz club in New York City.
“Obviously, a strip mall is not that,” Dokko said, with a laugh.
But, as patrons emerge from the busy parking lot into the serene music and gathering space, they’re visibly surprised and delighted.
“I loved the ambiance, the setting, and I saw the piano, the drum set, and I was just thinking to myself, ‘What is this?,’”said Curtis Luke, a Snoqualmie resident who stopped in for a quick coffee after getting lost on the way to see a business client. “I looked around and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, they play live jazz and it's a coffeehouse!’”
Everett resident Tyrell Neese-De Vaney even finds a little of that New York edge in the way the space transforms for jazz.
“It’s completely wild because, [during the day] it's very cafe, very relaxed, read a book. Then, when you come in while they're having jazz, I feel like I should have a cigarette and a scotch,” Neese-De Vaney said.
Musicians appreciate Butter Notes, too. The cafe is supported by the nonprofit JazzClubsNW, which fundraises to ensure the musicians are well-paid.
“I think it is of the utmost importance that small businesses like mine that want to have music in their space partner with nonprofits because we just want to pay out artists more,” Dokko said.
David Ackerman, who was the drummer with the Jazz Night School group that performed on July 18, noted the artist-friendly atmosphere at the cafe.
“Having the kit and the piano and everything already there is really nice. It just already inspires people to want to play,” Ackerman said. “You come in, you know it's a musical space.”
A community pillar
A musical space is exactly what Dokko was going for, down to the cafe shelves that display Ornette Coleman and Chick Corea vinyl. But Dokko, who’s tall, humble, and soft-spoken, downplays the acumen and vision it takes to run Butter Notes Cafe.
“I was passionate about playing music at the cafe, and I think it might be a little bit naive in a degree, because there is that spirit of jazz and wanting to play music, and then there's all of the logistical and operational side of the business,” he said.
At a time when operating costs are high and margins are slim for coffeehouses and grassroots music venues nationwide, Dokko said he’s forced to diversify his revenue streams to keep everything afloat.
“We're a coffee shop, we're slinging desserts, and we're also a jazz club. So, I think that confuses people,” he said.
The strip mall location also poses its own challenges, despite the convenient parking.
“I think I'm fighting the location quite a bit because it's not a part of the downtown,” Dokko said.
And yet, at the jazz event in mid-July, the business appeared to be thriving. Before the music began at 8 p.m., people flooded into the space and darted for free chairs until every spot was taken. An elderly couple sipped tea, a mother-daughter duo played Connect Four and spooned Korean shaved ice drinks called bingsu, and twentysomethings situated themselves close to the music.
“There’s lots of little cute coffee shops, but I don't know, I really like this one,” said Silas Pitts, a cafe regular who lives in the neighborhood. “I like the artwork here, and I just love the staff here, and I love the music.”
When asked about the well-attended jazz nights at the cafe, barista Gray Pries pointed to the environment that Dokko has carefully curated and the abundance of ways it offers people to connect.
“Honestly, it's just so welcoming in here. We have local artists on our walls. Our own employees have their own pottery out here. There's a little piece of everyone,” she said. “There's a talking point for everybody in here.”
On Sunday, Aug. 9, Butter Notes Cafe will host their weekly jazz jam from 6 to 8 p.m., and catch live jazz from pianist Danny Kolke on Saturday, Aug. 15 at 8 p.m.
