Elemental Coffee Roasters

[warreng88]

[template=]
development
|category1=Midtown
|category2=
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|project=Elemental Coffee
|address=815 N. Hudson
|status=complete
|owner=Elemental Coffee Roasters
|cost=
|architect=Hans Butzer, bgDesign
|start=
|finish=2011 renovations
|contractor=
|height=
|sq. feet=3,000 sf
|acerage=
|other=
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|image=
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[/template]

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Elemental Coffee Roasters to add bar at its new facility
By Brianna Bailey
Journal Record
Oklahoma City reporter - Contact 405-278-2847
Posted: 07:10 PM Thursday, January 6, 2011

OKLAHOMA CITY – Elemental Coffee Roasters hopes to recruit a loyal crowd of coffee geeks to the new coffee bar it is fashioning out of a former garage in Midtown.

Starting Jan. 18, the company plans to roll up the garage door from 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. at its new home at 815 N. Hudson Ave. to serve gourmet coffee to the morning downtown crowd Monday through Saturday.

The company hopes to complete renovations at the 3,000-square-foot facility and open the finished coffee bar by April 1.

“We want to make it a place where if you just want a cup of coffee and no “blah, blah, blah,” that’s fine, but if you want to come sit and hang out and geek it up with us about coffee, then we’re your place, too,” Elemental co-owner Chris Holliday said.

Elemental chose its new site, once the home of an auto repair business, because of its close proximity to the booming downtown and Midtown areas.

“We kind of see it as a part of the city rising up, and the coffee culture here rising up with it,” said Laura Massenat, Elemental co-founder.

Acclaimed Architect Hans Butzer’s firm bgDesign is helping out with the design of the new coffee bar, which will feature an urban, modern ambiance with communal seating.

Local coffee enthusiasts Holliday, Stephen Michalik and husband and wife Laurent and Laura Massenat founded Elemental in 2008 after lamenting the lack of gourmet coffee available at local restaurants.

Holliday and Michalik both have careers in information technology in Oklahoma City; Laurent Massenat is principal of Obelisk Engineering Inc. Laura Massenat also works at Obelisk and runs the nonprofit Eat Wise Oklahoma City, which promotes healthy eating habits among local schoolchildren.

The company is currently housed in a brick warehouse in an industrial area at 1825 W. Main St.

The back room of the warehouse is filled with burlap sacks and boxes of green coffee beans shipped from exotic locales like Guatemala and Kenya. Various scientific-looking measuring devices and Bunsen burners are strewn across a long table where Elemental’s owners taste-test or “cup” all of the different coffees that pass through the warehouse.

The partners buy one coffee out of every 90 it tries in its taste-testing laboratory.

The company roasts coffee twice a week and delivers it to metro area cafes and specialty grocers.

Holliday and the Massenats eventually hope to buy a coffee farm in Guatemala together, but have settled for running Elemental until the U.S. dollar strengthens against the Guatemalan quetzal, making their dreams of owning land in the mountains of Central America more affordable.

The new coffee bar will be strictly about the java. There will be no soda, perhaps a small selection of teas and maybe some pastries and other small snack items, but only if they accentuate the coffee, Holliday is quick to add.

“The one thing we want to express is our love of coffee,” he said.

[betts]

That's exciting, although I'm having trouble imaging they make a better latte than Coffee Slingers

[Midtown Guy]

I think this is in the same block as Ludevine . . . great synergy, and only a six minute walk from my front porch . .

[Spartan]

I wonder if OKC Herbivore is involved or knows them, because I think he hinted at the new coffee shop recently. I could be wrong about that.

Is this the same building of that failed cafe on Hudson from earlier this year?

[wsucougz]

Here's a link to a pic of the building off the assessor from 08. Looks like it's most recently a garage. Should be a nice addition to the neighborhood.

http://www.oklahomacounty.org/assess...29324001uA.jpg

[Spartan]

Oh that's right, there's a different restaurant fixing to open in that building at 7th and Hud. That building looks like it will make a really, really cool coffee shop space. There's some real potential there.

[ljbab728]

That would probably be the largest coffee shop in the metro if that is what's planned for that building.

[Soonerinfiniti]

8th and Hudson is Elemental Coffee - open January 18th in the am

[Pete]

Since this is so close to my apartments, I've hung out there are few times.

But I'm not a coffee drinker so I can't judge their product.

Wonder how it compares to the equally popular Coffee Slingers on Broadway? They both seem to do very well.

[sooner88]

Since this is so close to my apartments, I've hung out there are few times.

But I'm not a coffee drinker so I can't judge their product.

Wonder how it compares to the equally popular Coffee Slingers on Broadway? They both seem to do very well.

I'm about halfway between both. I prefer the coffee at Coffee Slingers (I usually get a brewed coffee, nitrane or an americano so can't speak to the other drinks). I go to Elemental occasionally to switch it up.... I like that they have food options too, I just don't like their coffee as much. Both seem to have good crowds throughout the day.

[Pete]

I think Elemental does really well with their weekend brunch.

And they seem to have tapped into the cycling crowd and a large bike rack, plus a Spokies location.

[DoctorTaco]

Since this is so close to my apartments, I've hung out there are few times.

But I'm not a coffee drinker so I can't judge their product.

Wonder how it compares to the equally popular Coffee Slingers on Broadway? They both seem to do very well.

It's not as straightforward as this, but:

Bot serve great coffee with an emphasis on espresso drinks and pore-overs (no drip).
Generally Elemental is more yuppie and older, Coffee Slingers is more hipster and younger.
Walk into Elemental and you will almost always see "movers" of downtown OKC, often in the middle of a meeting of some sort. At one point Elemental bragged that 25 companies/business-people were "officeing" at Elemental. Contrast this to Slingers, where all the power outlets are covered to discourage people working on laptops.
Slingers is generally louder.
Hard to pin down, but Elemental always feels friendlier. I actually slightly prefer the coffee at Coffee Slingers but the feeling there (for me at least) is that of the stereotypical hipster haunt (think cool bar, record store, etc.) where the staff is standoffish and you feel like they are judging you for not knowing the "system".

[Urbanized]

^^^^^^
Pretty much my experience too. Slingers is more on my way to work, so in recent months I have been going there more, but the loudness (and sometimes the high temp inside) are often off-putting to me. I have a number of friends who hang out there regularly, but if I had to give it a breakdown I would say the crowd there tends to be more skewed towards influential PR and nonprofit folks (in addition to a few hipsters), while Elemental is an absolute who's who of the ULI and downtown development crowd. Much better networking place, relative to things I am interested in. But again, I have some very good friends who hang at Slingers, and it is more on my way, so I like going there too. Coffee is great both places, though Slingers is probably a bit more appealing to people who think of themselves as coffee snobs.

That said, I am now mostly converted to Leaf & Bean. Also super-convenient, and it is just such a great, bright, comfy environment inside. Tends to be more relaxing than the other too, also. They are very busy in the early AM with people who live in DD stopping on their way to work, but it slows WAY down after 8:30 or 9:00 and is perfect for conversation or for checking e-mails, reading, social media, etc.

[Pete]

The couple of times I've been in Elemental it can get pretty loud as well.

How could it not be? Absolutely everything in there is a hard surface and then you have the various beverage contraptions.

It's amazing to me how badly considered both sound and lighting are in most bars and restaurants. Both can make a world of difference and can just as easily be positives as negatives.

One thing about Elemental: Both times I was in there, the tables were a mess. Had to wipe one down myself and the whole time I was in I didn't see any of their employees taking on this task.

[corwin1968]

I'm just beginning my descent into coffee snobbery and I need to check these places out but I dread the thought of dealing with the downtown area.

I think I would check out Elemental first so I can check out the cycle culture. It's getting pretty widespread in other parts of the country, coffee and bicycles and an emerging trend is old style, steel bikes and hauling your equipment on your bike out into the woods and brewing coffee while enjoying a nature ride. I think Rivendell Bicycle Works started the movement and it's expanding quite a bit. Look up Gravel & Grind in Maryland for a good example. Pretty cool stuff.

[Pete]

Besides the newly opened Leaf + Bean in Deep Deuce, there will soon be Clarity Coffee on Main Street downtown, and the proprietor is a long-time Elemental employee.

[TheTravellers]

I'm just beginning my descent into coffee snobbery and I need to check these places out but I dread the thought of dealing with the downtown area.

...

I believe the original Leaf & Bean drive-through stand is still operational at NW 36th/May (northwest corner?), but not totally sure, and they're really good, so that might be an easy way to check it out. Other than that, there's Compass at NW 150th/May, Aspen on 15th/railroad tracks in Edmond, and a few others that aren't downtown-ish that I can't remember off the top of my head.

Good luck on your *ascent* into coffee snobbery, it will serve you well. ;-)

[2Lanez]

... and I need to check these places out but I dread the thought of dealing with the downtown area.

Really? For what reason?

[corwin1968]

I believe the original Leaf & Bean drive-through stand is still operational at NW 36th/May (northwest corner?), but not totally sure, and they're really good, so that might be an easy way to check it out. Other than that, there's Compass at NW 150th/May, Aspen on 15th/railroad tracks in Edmond, and a few others that aren't downtown-ish that I can't remember off the top of my head.

Good luck on your *ascent* into coffee snobbery, it will serve you well. ;-)

I've been to Compass twice and they have a fantastic latte. I bought a bag of their roasted in Tulsa coffee but it was roasted almost two months ago. I want to try something roasted within a week or so. I may have to check out the Leaf & Bean on the northside.

[John Knight]

New covered patio going in at Elemental:

[corwin1968]

Good luck on your *ascent* into coffee snobbery, it will serve you well. ;-)

I'm well on my way! I've been making coffee with a French Press and an inadequate burr grinder (still good though!) and I decided to take the plunge and somewhere in the Metro right now is a Fed Ex truck carrying my Technivorm Moccamaster! The retailer also included filters and a can of Illy coffee (which I'm curious to try....more expensive than Elemental's coffee) so I'll be brewing in the time it takes me to unbox, set-up and run 2-3 water brewing cycles thru the machine.

It also gives me more reason to try more locally roasted beans!

My new toy:

[Thomas Vu]

I'm well on my way! I've been making coffee with a French Press and an inadequate burr grinder (still good though!) and I decided to take the plunge and somewhere in the Metro right now is a Fed Ex truck carrying my Technivorm Moccamaster! The retailer also included filters and a can of Illy coffee (which I'm curious to try....more expensive than Elemental's coffee) so I'll be brewing in the time it takes me to unbox, set-up and run 2-3 water brewing cycles thru the machine.

It also gives me more reason to try more locally roasted beans!

My new toy:

A guy I follow just started a website dedicated to local coffee places (nation wide, not just OK)

The Best Damn Coffee - The name says it all?

[Pete]

From https://twitter.com/dtOKCbuilds... They really needed the patio cover not only for outside patrons but the eastern light in the morning -- when most people are in there -- is absolutely blinding on the inside as well.

[PhiAlpha]

From https://twitter.com/dtOKCbuilds... They really needed the patio cover not only for outside patrons but the eastern light in the morning -- when most people are in there -- is absolutely blinding on the inside as well.

This has already made a big difference on their patio. I've seen a number of people sitting out there every time I've driven by.