MILLENNIUM PARK - INTELLIGENTSIA - ILLUMINATING COFFEE

On Friday, April 28, Intelligentsia Coffee opens its newest location at 55 E. Randolph (Michigan at Wabash).  This new location joins Intelligentsia’s current coffeehouses in the Monadnock Building on West Jackson and on North Broadway in Lakeview.  

Its nearly 1900-square-feet of space will house a full coffee bar and seating for 30 on the main floor as well as a smaller coffee bar in the city’s pedway.  As Monadnock riffs on the South Loop neighborhood’s urbane aesthetic and the Broadway store offers up a the youthful casual-ness of Lakeview, the post-industrial décor of the new two-story coffee house is designed to echo the art and structure of nearby Millennium Park.  Angles created from poured concrete and dark rough granite will be softened with muted colors and an oversize banquette along the east wall on the first floor.  In the pedway, stainless steel and clean white tile will evoke the stylish train terminals of modern Europe.

New Things on the Menu

This new Heritage Building coffeehouse will serve up award-winning brewed coffee, roasted fresh daily, as well the extraordinary espresso drinks created with Intelligentsia Black Cat espresso and Intelligentsia tea.  The store will also feature the fresh panini and salads customers of the Monadnock store have grown to love.

Intelligentsia’s Restaurant Blends will also be available for the first time, by the cup or by the pound.  For years, Intelligentsia has been working with chefs from Chicago’s finest restaurants to develop custom blends designed to specifically marry with the restaurant’s cuisine.  Charlie Trotter’s, Frontera Grill, Blackbird and Alinea are just a few of the restaurants that have long served their own Intelligentsia Blend.  Though not a restaurant, even Harpo Studios has developed Oprah’s favorite coffee blend.  Previously, these blended coffees have only been available at the restaurant, or in the case of Charlie Trotter, also at the chef’s carryout store.

At the new Heritage Building Intelligentsia, one Restaurant Blend will be featured each month.  Now boasting the city’s only Clover machine, Intelligentsia will have the capability to brew each cup to order, ensuring the freshest cup of coffee and a true taste of the chef’s art.  The new Restaurant Blend program will initially feature rising star Stephanie Izard of Scylla, who is developing a new blend of coffee to kick off the program.  Future featured Restaurant Blends include Charlie Trotter’s, Blackbird and Frontera Grill.

New Program Set to Launch

With the opening of this newest store, Intelligentsia is also kicking off Intelligentsia Direct Trade.  Both a departure from and a refinement of Fair Trade coffee, Intelligentsia Direct Trade goes beyond the price supports of Fair Trade to develop individual, exclusive relationships with the world’s finest coffee growers.

With the goal of creating a whole new model for the Specialty Coffee industry, Intelligentsia Direct Trade is a commitment, requiring continued collaboration and ongoing involvement in the actual growing of coffee beans and the farmer who grow them.  Fair Trade coffee was an important first step in the lives of coffee growers throughout the world by setting up pricing structures to ensure baseline prices for coffee.  Intelligentsia Direct Trade now links quality and price in a manner lacking in the current Fair Trade system.  Ultimately, Intelligentsia Direct Trade results in higher compensation for growers and better coffee for consumers.  

The model for this work, of course, is the upscale wine market, where the viticulturalists who own the best land and grow the best grapes are able to charge a premium for their fruit.  And just as with fine wines, where terrior creates flavors and aromas distinctive to those grapes, as Intelligentsia Direct Trade grows, coffee drinkers will soon be able to identify the specific region or even a particular farm by the flavors and aromas in their coffee.

One of Chicago’s Finest

Named for the pre-chain days when coffeehouses were forums for discussion, Intelligentsia Roasting Works opened for business in October, 1995 by husband and wife Doug Zell and Emily Mange.  The company has earned world-wide acclaim for the quality of their coffee and for the integrity of their business practices.  Consistently listed as one of the country's finest coffees, Intelligentsia coffee now boasts three locations in Chicago as well as a growing wholesale business that serves customers throughout the country.