Results tagged “dougzell”

Early this year Intelligentsia Coffee and Tea stirred up some controversy over how they produced single-cup coffee orders. To wit: the local coffee purveyor had begun to switch how they brewed single cup coffee for patrons, abandoning the drip coffee method for a more labor and time intensive brew in the $11,000 Clover machine. That system, which was deployed in all but the Monadnock store resulted in a pricier cup of coffee and a longer wait. Fast forward seven months and Intelligentsia is again making changes in their stores.

Foodie/urban explorer, carless advocate and eager drinker of bucket boy haterade Mike Doyle is beating on a bucket of his own over at Gapers Block's Drive-Thru blog regarding Intelligentsia Coffee and Tea's decision to replace drip coffee in their retail locations with more intensive brews extracted from $11,000 Clover machines. "(A) sub-$3 cup of coffee is now a thing of the past at Intelligentsia," Doyle writes. From there, Doyle launches into overdrive, wondering if all the changes Intelligentsia has implemented in its retail locations in recent months is a case of a company putting the cart before the horse, especially in our current banana republic of an economy.

Having tasted the Holy Grail of coffee in October, we were curious to see how some also-rans fared, in comparison. By chance we came across a second place winner from last year's Nicaragua Cup of Excellence while making our monthly bean run at our local coffee shop.

No witty introduction this week. Our fault for trying to impress the new staffers with barleywine ale and Dalmore. Thank God for French-pressed coffee. The buffet is now open. A Good German to the End: The closing of Delicatessen Meyer should have been a story we weighed in on earlier in the week and not relegated to the Buffet. To that end, Chicagoist extends a sincere mea culpa. Anyhoo, for those who haven't heard, the...

Doug Zell, CEO, Intelligentsia