Quality is at the Core of Elemental Coffee’s Latest OKC Cafe

At the new Elemental Coffee shop in Innovation Hall in Oklahoma City. All images courtesy of Elemental Coffee.

Rising like helium in Oklahoma City, Elemental Coffee celebrated the grand opening of its second company-owned location this month inside Innovation Hall in the city’s Innovation District.

Operating within a roughly 600-square-foot footprint inside the Hall’s community center, the new cafe offers energizing beverages crafted through a La Marzocco Linea PB espresso machine alongside food made with fresh, locally grown ingredients. 

Large shared seating areas indoors and out support quick visits or longer stays. The morning menu centers on grab-and-go items such as breakfast sandwiches, overnight oats and yogurt parfaits, while lunchtime service shifts to bowls, melts and other fast, filling options.

Coffees for the year-round drink menu all come from Elemental’s 1,500-square-foot Midtown flagship roastery cafe.

“Intentionally sourced, expertly roasted beans are at the center of everything we do,” Elemental Coffee Co-Owner Al Shinn told Daily Coffee News. “We believe that everyone deserves a quality cup of coffee and that’s what we work to guarantee at all of our locations across the board.”

Green coffees for Elemental are purchased from suppliers such as Keffa Coffee, Onyx Coffee Importers, Cereza Coffee and Cofinet, among other importers with relationships with Elemental over the past 18 years. 

“We value these importers because of their strong partnerships with farmers and their commitments to quality and equity in their practices, which are co-equally important to Elemental Coffee Roasters,” said Shinn.

Elemental Coffee Co-Owner Laura Phillips and her original partners launched Elemental in 2008 as one of the city’s first high-end roasters, growing it into a fundamental force in Oklahoma City’s emerging coffee scene. 

“We believed that Oklahoma City deserved exceptional coffee, and we understood our role as educators first in a market that was wide open,” Shinn said. “Today, there are as many specialty shops as there are churches, which is saying a lot in this part of the country, and there are many local roasters as well.”

Operations eventually moved into Elemental’s Midtown flagship at Hudson and 8th Street. Today, Phillips is joined at the helm by co-owners Shinn, Lindsey Watz and head roaster Marcus Smith, who oversees production on the company’s modified Probat L12 roaster.

The Elemental flagship in Midtown.

The roastery supplies Elemental’s total of four branded coffee bars, including franchise locations at the airport and at the Capitol Co-Op bike shop and coffee house. 

“We are excited for the opportunity to be at Innovation Hall and are spending the next several months focusing on our current cafes and making sure we have the best possible quality at all of our locations,” said Shinn. “We’ll be updating the food menu at our flagship soon and are always considering more opportunities to license shops with experienced operators here in Oklahoma or anywhere that people want to bring good, high-quality coffee to their communities.”

Elemental Coffee at Innovation Hall is located at 316 NE 9th St, Oklahoma City.

Comments? Questions? News to share? Contact DCN’s editors here. For all the latest coffee industry news, subscribe to the DCN newsletter.