Mark Capriotti & Mark Corpus
Mark Capriotti and Mark Corpus felt stuck on corporate career paths until they woke up and smelled the coffee…and ReAnimator was born.
When future ReAnimator Coffee cofounders Mark Capriotti ’05 and Mark Corpus ’06 met at Drexel (Corpus’ roommate was Capriotti’s cousin), neither was very particular about the coffee they drank. Philadelphia had a similarly unassuming approach to coffee at the time, when La Colombe was the only specialty coffee roaster in town.
That all changed just a few years after graduation.
In 2010, both Marks were growing restless at their corporate jobs. Capriotti, who had studied electrical engineering as an undergraduate, worked at a helicopter assembly plant, and Corpus, who had studied business, toiled at a finance job. During his free time, Corpus began experimenting with roasting coffee beans at home and Capriotti, already a home brewer, tried it too. Soon, coffee seemed less of a hobby and more of a potential business.
“There was no small specialty roaster in Philadelphia,” says Corpus. “It just didn’t exist in the city. No one was doing it.”
The two started making plans. They outlined business operations, found a roaster, developed packaging and tested beans. They pooled their money to start the company, taking out loans instead of relying on outside investors. Corpus came up with the name from H.P. Lovecraft’s 1922 short story “Herbert West–Reanimator,” one of the earliest instances of zombies in fiction — a fitting choice for a coffee company.
For the first two years, they roasted beans in Capriotti’s basement — “a rather hellish experience,” recalls Corpus.
“We’d come home from our full-time jobs, roast all night, sleep a little and then go back to our jobs,” explains Corpus, wincing a little at the memory.
“We delivered during lunch on Fridays and on the weekend,” adds Capriotti.
But the hard work paid off. They started developing their coffee sourcing strategies and roasting profiles in October 2010, focusing on wholesale only, and sold their first coffee in April 2011. Corpus quit his job in October 2012, when they bought a 12-kilo roaster and moved production to a warehouse. Capriotti followed suit in April 2013, after they signed the lease to open their first café in Fishtown. In August 2014, they opened a second location in Kensington, now headquartered as a café, production facility and training lab.
Throughout, they’ve stuck by their commitment to quality coffee. They source beans from farms in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Peru, Colombia, Ethiopia and Guatemala, taking annual trips to meet with roasters and farmers.
“We have an advantage over other roasters by visiting the farms and getting access to coffees that others don’t have,” says Corpus. “We want to develop relationships and make sure the level of quality is sustained.”
ReAnimator Coffee is now carried locally at Whole Foods, many of Philly’s co-ops, and at various cafés and specialty grocery stores including DiBruno Bros. Nationally, the coffee can be found in restaurants and multi-roaster specialty cafés.
The Marks now oversee 19 or so employees, and they have learned to apply corporate principles of running a business that they learned during co-ops and post-graduation jobs. Soon, they plan to increase the amount of roasting (five days a week, up from four) and cupping, or tasting for quality control (three days instead of two). And, who knows, maybe another café is in the offing.
“We’re continually moving forward,” says Capriotti. “If a location presents itself and it looks good, feels good and we think it’s going to work, then we’ll do it.”
One hint as to where: “We’ve identified the brand with Fishtown since day one,” says Capriotti. “I’ve lived in Fishtown since 2006; Corpus moved here in 2011. Our start was really at Greensgrow Farms, setting up during CSA pick-ups. Our first sale was to Almanac Market in Northern Liberties. We really identify with the neighborhood.”
– Alissa Falcone
