Owner/operator Eric Cockrell works on an order with a receipt in hand as customers enjoy the café’s space.

SACRAMENTO, CA (MPG) - If you have been to the Temple Coffee on S Street in recent years, there was a heavily-bearded man behind the bar with an ironic wit who went against the grain.

After six-and-a-half years working there as a barista, Ted Evans has opened his own café with three partners just last October.

 Ted Evans holds a portafilter behind the bar at Immortal Café and Supply.

This isn’t his first coffee rodeo: Before moving to Sacramento, Evans was getting a master’s degree at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. At the same time, he picked and processed coffee from Wai’anae Kai Forest Reserve, on the west side of Oahu, where he had a field site that was formerly a coffee plantation, while specializing in natural resources and environmental management.

Once he graduated, Evans immediately started working in a little, craft, mom-and-pop-type café called Morning Glass on the islands.

His new downtown Sacramento venture, Immortal Café and Supply, consists of a long corridor occupying the former space of Naked Coffee’s coffeehouse at 11th and H streets. Art with a still-life bias greets customers, hung on bluish-green walls that make the café, on a cloudy day, seem almost underwater. There is a bar with six stools if you want to chat with a staff member making drinks. Heavy metal likely plays on the sound system and there is a disco ball gracing the ceiling — a trenchant juxtaposition.

 A couple customers enjoy conversation amongst the art on the walls decorating Immortal Café and Supply.

Evans is one of four owners of Immortal Café and Supply, which is not a coffee shop, he underscored, but a café that emphasizes food and beverages in addition to coffee.

When asked about what was behind the name of the café, Evans became existential. He said, “And how I interpret it is totally different from the other owners and how they would interpret it…We want something that just continues to live on…Living on in infamy of sorts.”

Co-owners Eric Cockrell and Jess Weddle-Cockrell are behind the food. She has worked at Canon and he has worked for Cru, a couple of Sacramento favorites. The fourth owner, Shan Dan Horan, is a silent partner who has a music record label.

 Customers enjoy the café’s space on a winter Saturday.

This writer sampled the vegan biscuits and gravy for $13, part of the Saturday brunch menu. Evans said, “Jess, one of the owners-slash-I-guess-you-could-call-her-head-chef-slash-baker makes the biscuits. She and Eric tag team to make the gravy. They are husband and wife.” (Evans, in Evans’ ironic fashion, initially joked that the delicious biscuits were Pillsbury.)

Evans said, “Everything is vegetarian, most things are vegan — we are not a vegan café.” He continued, “Labeling yourself as a vegan café pigeonholes you — people avoid vegan cafés because for some reason, people are like, ‘I don’t eat vegan food.’”

He asked, “Like if you close your eyes, did it taste like biscuits and gravy to you?” This writer said, “Yes.” He said, “That’s the point.” The biscuits were flaky-scrumptious and the gravy had a pleasant earthiness.

They serve other dishes such as savory bread pudding, or “strata,” with rotating ingredients including spinach and leeks, with cheddar cheese that goes for $13, as well.

If you’re looking for a more economical handcrafted option, you could go with the house-made kimchi, a Korean touch at $4.

But wait, there are beverages sold at the café, as well. They have your standard espressos ($3.75) and cortados ($4.50), and a variety of coffees from four different roasters, including Olympia Coffee in Washington. One staff member with the company was a regular at Morning Glass. Another is a good buddy of Evans’ from Hawaii who visits his mom in Sacramento’s Pocket area.

 A variety of coffees is for sale at Immortal Café and Supply.

Evans said of Olympia, “They’ve got six or seven Hawaii connections.”

For the 21-and-over crowd, there is a full beer and wine menu — a large, glass refrigerator greets customers just inside the entrance.

His dreams for the future include perhaps opening a second location that specializes (more so than the current iteration) in something like wine or a beer bar. Evans mused, “Maybe if I can get a little roaster and do some tiny batch roasting on the side.”

Immortal Café and Supply’s building is supposed to become a boutique hotel; Evans and his partners signed a long-term lease and have committed to staying open during the remodeling.

Where would he like to be in 10 years? He said, “I’m going to be old in 10 years. My back can only take so much.” He is 38 and full of irony.

Immortal Café and Supply

1111 H St., Suite 102
Sacramento, CA 95814

Tuesdays to Fridays from 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Saturdays from 7:30 a.m.to 3 p.m.
Sundays and Mondays closed.