//BIOGRAPHY Joseph Jonathan Stewart was born in Seattle, Washington to Roy and Addison Stewart, a carpenter and a jazz singer respectively. The oldest of three siblings, Joseph stayed close to his brother and sister, the three of them being a trio of troublemakers as soon as they were able to walk. Growing up in the Stewart household, the children were told to be the best that they could be – to follow their dreams wherever that lead them. It was a motto that their parents followed as well – Roy had dreams of being a successful architect, and once he had graduated school, he ended up opening his own carpentry business, making a good name for himself with his own business. Addison was a singer through and through, and at an early age she was in love with music. Jazz became her calling, and because of that the Stewart home was filled with music and song almost every day of the year.

As Joseph grew up, he took interest in both of his parents’ hobbies, as well as hobbies of his own. Joseph started small, working with his father in his carpentry business, and started to enjoy the work with his hands. He took pride in what he built, and in high school when it came time to decide what he wanted to do for a job, for a career, he wanted to join his father. Roy insisted though that his eldest son get an education – which was something he was never able to do. After struggling with the idea of leaving home, Joseph finally decided on getting his Bachelors from Wentworth Institute of Technology, one of the best architecture schools in the country. So once it was graduation day in high school, it was off to Boston, Massachusetts.

As soon as Joseph got settled in Boston, he found a home there. Living in a dorm wasn't exactly his style, but he took his studies seriously and took his work seriously as well. He managed to land two part time jobs to help pay for college and bills; a local carpenter union and working as a bartender at a jazz club. He spent most of his days when he was not in class or was not studying by working with the carpenters union, working on constructing houses and building throughout the Boston area and Eastern Massachusetts. His nights were dedicated to the club, working late into the night to make sure he could get all the tips he could get. It was easy – he was a charismatic fellow who ended up winning the attention of the women who came to the club with their dates, and he would be lying if he said he didn't like the attention.

As his schooling continued, he kept an active lifestyle of working the two jobs as well as enjoying his small bit of social life that he allowed himself to have. He ended up seriously dating one of the female bartenders who worked with him at the nightclub throughout his last few years at Wentworth, and by the time he graduated, they ended up getting engaged to be married. Katherine and Joseph were extremely happy, and he made sure as all hell to focus on them and their relationship before throwing himself into furthering his own goals. After all, he was a romantic man at heart, and finding someone like Katherine was hard to do – she was one of a kind.

The two were married in 1996 when Joseph turned 23, and were married on a beach in Gloucester, Massachusetts, with both of their families watching. Joseph was excited to start a new life with Katherine, start a family. But their marriage was short lived – by the time they were both 26, Katherine had died in a car accident, and Joseph was left alone. It took a while for Joseph to move on from the death of his wife, but eventually he did it the only way he knew how. At his father Roy’s suggestion, Joseph went back to school, to focus on his career and further himself. He would not allow himself to fall in love with anyone else for a while – or at least no one as serious as he had with Katherine.

Joseph entered the Graduate department of Architecture at Northeastern University when he turned 28 in 2001, and graduated their two year program in 2003. By this point, Joseph had focused on his work so much that he had tried to find a way to combine both of his skill sets – he had become attached to the club, moving from bartender to manager though the years, and his attachment to his fellow union brothers gave him an idea. He wanted to open up his own club, but he’d build it himself. He’d design it, work with his union brotherhood to build it and create a few jobs in the process, and end up creating a few more jobs once the club opened.

The owner of the club was sad to see Joseph go, but knew how exciting this opportunity could be, so he gave Joseph an even better gift – he could use the club’s name and style and bring it into his new one, as the old owner was getting ready to retire anyway. While Joseph decided to take the offer half way, he declined on the name. He already had one in mind.

Katherine’s opened up in 2006 after years of being built, getting the right permits and making sure everything was in place. Serving as the owner, the very first thing he did was to invite a very special person to be the first person to sing on the stage: his mother. Addison and Roy flew from Seattle to Boston to be with their son, where Addison took the stage and sang a few Jazz standards, along with other members of their family, and even Joseph himself. It was the perfect opening to the club, and one that Joseph still talks about fondly to this day.

Shortly after the club opened in 2006, business started to boom. It was surprising that the city apparently had wanted a club like this, and even sometimes Joseph allowed other bands and local musicians to play outside of the Jazz and Blues standards. His parents were proud of what he was doing, and so was he – Joseph felt that he was honoring Katherine by keeping his promise that he was never going to forget her, and he was honoring his upbringing by just how the club came about. For years, there was no big events, no big announcements, just Joseph living his life from day to day. He had a few flings and girlfriends along the way (he was only human after all), but he was content with keeping his life happy focused on his club and his life.

As the years went on, Joseph made sure to keep making sure to pay his union dues, and took on union jobs when he could, and picketed when they needed to picket. Always an honest and loyal man, Joseph became the man around town that you could depend on, that you knew would be there to help you if you really needed it. Joseph enjoyed that he was this person for others, and while he might not have always had someone like that for him, it didn't matter much. He was a happy man, who was happy to have his job and his family back home.

Roy and Addison both died of natural causes in late 2009, one going right after the other, something his sister said was romantic. “One died of a broken heart, they couldn't live without the other” she said, and it was something that made Joseph smile. Instead of a funeral, they held a celebration at the club, with recordings of his parents singing playing all night as they told wild and strange stories of the two most important people in Joseph’s life.

Following his parents’ passing, in late 2010 once everything was sorted and taken care of in Seattle, Joseph’s siblings moved out to Boston to join him at the club. His sister took on a managerial role in 2011 and his brother took on the kitchen in 2012 once he graduated from culinary school. The Stewart trio were back and better than ever, and were more than happy to make the club into one of Boston’s hottest nightclubs around. After all, it was hard to get live music these days, and good live music at that.

Right now, Joseph Stewart is content with the life that he has, and has always been a man who follows his heart and let it the world take him where it would take him. But for now, he has always felt a strong pull towards Boston and plans on staying put – after all he would never leave Katherine’s behind.