If you have visited Southern Grounds on a Friday morning, you might have noticed a small group of older men chatting and drinking coffee. This group has been dubbed the Koffee Klatch.
It all started in 2023, after Brooks Andrews retired from a long career as a chemical engineer.
“My wife was saying ‘Brooks, you’re retired, you really need some friends,’” he said.
But he had always been one of those guys who never really needed a tight group of close friends beyond family.
“I had always had a lot of people around me business wise, and I had just come off of being a board chair for RAP (Riverside Avondale Preservation), and so I wasn’t devoid of social interaction,” Andrews said. “But she was saying, ‘you just need some closer guy friends,’” Andrews said. “And so, I got to thinking about that.”
He then rounded up six friends for consistent get-togethers rather than having just random meetings here and there. The plan was to meet every two weeks on Friday mornings for coffee at Southern Grounds.
These types of groups can be seen all over the country and have been called ROMEOS, which stands for “Retired Old Men Eating Out.” But that didn’t seem to fit this group appropriately.
“We wanted to go beyond that,” Andrews said. “This group stands for ‘Rogue Older Men Educating Ourselves.’
“It’s more than just getting together,” he continued. “We talk about what’s on our minds, what’s going on in this city, what someone is excited about, maybe a new book or new topic. We get into some very in-depth conversations, whether it be the Jags stadium or climate change; downtown development; challenges in city, state and federal government; or even our own health.”
The group recently had a serious discussion about serving as caregivers to aging parents. One member recently went through the process of moving his parents into an assisted living facility, and he was able to talk about it and reflect on it in a safe space surrounded by supportive friends.
“It’s helpful to chat about it with others, to see what they’ve done or thought about or have experienced in the recent past,” Andrews said. “It’s been great fun and very supportive and something I would encourage others to do.”
They also discussed the process of nearing the end of their lives, dealing with dementia and how they are handling those situations.
“That’s been helpful for us,” Andrews said. “And that situation speaks to something that each of us needs. I think one of the reasons why we all feel compelled to do this is that we all need mental stimulation. We all need social interaction.”
The group has quite an array of members from different backgrounds. Andrews is a retired chemical engineer, while the other members include a landscape architect, hospital administrator, attorney, retail executive, educator, nonprofit executive and leadership development consultant.
“We are like minded when it comes to politics and our vision for Jacksonville, and it’s super helpful that our backgrounds are so diverse,” Andrews said.
The group has started to gain somewhat of a reputation, with several people wondering if they are “solving all the problems in Jacksonville.”
“I’m not sure that it’s well deserved, but it’s kind of fun,” Andrews said with a laugh.
The group tends to dive into important topics facing the city and have voiced their opinions when they feel it’s necessary. They’ve reached out to Councilmember Jimmy Peluso and written letters to the editor.
Lately, the group has been discussing taking on a specific project. They just need to agree on what that project might be.
“We want to try to make a difference rather than chat about it or get our frustrations off our shoulders,” Andrews said. “We ought to do something that is a little more sustainable and a has a little more meaning to it in the long term.”
When Andrews isn’t hanging with the Koffee Klatch, he enjoys spending time with his wife, Cathie Clark, an interior designer with whom he reconnected through a mutual friend. The couple – who attended the same preschool all the way up to Episcopal and knew each other but weren’t friends – have two children each, ranging in age from 30 to 37 years old (Weston, Morgan, Lindsay and Kelly).
The two married in 2021 after 10 years of dating. They waited for COVID to pass and for their children to get settled in their own married lives.
“We’ve got a combined family of four wonderful kids, two girls and two boys, and now we have six grandchildren under the age of 2.5,” Andrews said. And he is currently waiting on another grandchild who will be born very soon.
“That is an added new dimension to our lives,” Andrews said. “I didn’t think I was ready to be a grandparent, but nobody asked me whether I was, it just sort of happens. And we certainly didn’t think it was going to happen this quick, or with so many all at once.”
To their grandchildren, they are Gramps and Gram – names they chose rather than leaving it up to chance or the whim of a toddler.
“To watch them grow up and develop little personalities and to be a part of their lives is pretty darn special,” he said.
Clark and Andrews spend a lot of time traveling. They take a family trip to North Carolina each fall.
“We try to get as many of our kids together as we can and we rent a big house or cabin,” he said. “That’s important to us as well.”
They also love traveling as a couple, typically taking two big trips a year. This year, they are heading to Switzerland and back to Italy, where they spent their post-COVID honeymoon.
“That’s an important part of our life right now,” he added.
They have been to Europe, the Caribbean, St. Lucia, Glacier National Park, the Canadian Rockies, North Carolina and many other places.
After retirement, Andrews also decided he wanted to become more involved in the community. In addition to serving on the RAP board, he volunteers with the St. Johns Riverkeeper’s RiverX boat trips for fourth through sixth grade students.
“We teach them about environmental issues associated with the river and I’m the salinity guy,” he said. “I show the kids how to measure salinity and different spots in the river and the pros and cons of salt water and our St. Johns River.”
He has also served as a kayak guide on Amelia Island, where he has a beach house for getaways and as a place for family and friends to stay.
Andrews and Clark are also huge dog lovers. They have a German short-haired pointer named Finn that was adopted as a retirement gift and “training project” for Andrews. Finn runs alongside Andrews as he rides his bike or strolls among the shops of Avondale
“A lot of the people in the neighborhood know us as Finn’s parents.”
