Evan Inatome
Elixr Coffee | Philadelphia
April 2019
Evan Inatome was born in Michigan, spent much of his childhood in the Bay Area, and attended college in Southern California. In 2010, he visited his sister, married to then-Eagles tackle Winston Justice, in Philadelphia. After falling in love with the food scene and the lower cost of living, Inatome decided to stick around to help his sister with childcare. Seeing opportunity in specialty coffee, Inatome took his passion for roasting and started a small coffee business. Elixr Coffee was born in 2010 and originally served coffee roasted by other companies, including Counter Culture. In 2011, Elixr started doing its own roasting, focusing on lighter roasts, rare, and single-origin coffees.
Passionate about his craft, Inatome has placed in the top 10 three years in a row at the U.S. Roasting Championships. The business has expanded to three locations, and Inatome’s portfolio also includes a stake in Double Knot, an all-day sushi cafe and coffee bar from Schulson Collective. His flagship roastery opened summer 2018 and draws from Inatome’s half-Japanese heritage with an omakase coffee-tasting bar, where enthusiasts drink five different coffee drinks. Elixr’s current star barista, T. Benjamin Fisher, won second place at the U.S. Coffee Championships in 2018.
