Elevator Coffee was founded in 2016 by Jay Sycip and Andrew Coe in Portland, Oregon. Coe, the head roaster and coffee buyer, won the 2023 U.S. Coffee Roasting Championship and placed third at the World Coffee Roasting Championships in Taipei the same year. The roastery previously operated a cafe in SE Portland until Fall 2020, then pivoted to a wholesale and online model, roasting to order and shipping weekly. A 96 point Coffee Review score ranks it among the top roasters in the Northwest. The ethos is summed up in a tagline: roasted by nerds, not snobs.