It’s Tuesday morning at Intelligentsia’s coffeebar in Lakeview, and all the parts are moving in harmony with the precision that has built the roaster’s progressive reputation.
The coffees are carefully chosen, roasted and brewed. The service is prompt and well-rehearsed. And the final product this day is a fragrant Costa Rican (Providencia Honey) with notes of apple, raisin and melon. The flavors are sharp and undeterred from the paper to-go cup and signature red sleeve.
Before the COVID-19 outbreak, such a visit would have been a cross between a culinary experience and casual stop by a neighborhood cafe. But when the company’s original cafe at 3123 N. Broadway emerged this summer from the pandemic-caused shutdown, it was relegated to a walk-up window with masked exchanges through Plexiglas. Now with colder weather settling in, indoor service is open, but just for grab-and-go.
It’s an odd twist. The roaster that emphasizes the overall sensory experience of coffee has its 25th anniversary year disrupted by a pandemic that restricts interactions with customers, closes cafes and reduces access to coffee itself. But the core principles of change and evolution that helped co-founders Doug Zell and Emily Mange and Vice President of Coffee Geoff Watts take Intelli from neighborhood destination to industry pioneer have helped blunt COVID-19’s impact.
The company has expanded far beyond its Chicago birthplace, with cafes in Los Angeles, New York City, Boston and most recently Austin, Texas. It has roasting facilities in Fulton Market and California. Intelligentsia coffee is available online through direct sales and subscription services, and is now sold in Target stores nationwide.
“People have developed a certain loyalty in 2020,” said CEO James McLaughlin. “Having that comfort of having that cup of coffee to start the morning and help fight what 2020 can bring to them.”
Although muddled by the difficult year for the entire hospitality industry, Intelligentsia’s burgeoning role in the specialty coffee community goes beyond its place as trailblazer in sourcing, brewing and barista training. In recent years, it’s also become an incubator for new roasters.
The Third Wave movement, coffee’s equivalent to the craft beer or microbrew boom, is dotted with alumni who have spun off to start their own companies or moved on to higher positions elsewhere.
It’s an underpinning the founders have embraced.
“Seeing people go in and do things in the industry has been amazing,” McLaughlin added. “It’s really a nice recognition of the way the company has grown up. The fact we’ve been able to attract phenomenal people is a credit to Geoff, Doug and Emily. It speaks to the core values of Intelligentsia and how we continue to reevaluate coffee.”
“It’s always varied how much time they spend at Intelligentsia,” Zell added, “but if we’re the University of Coffee, I’m OK with that.”
The artisan model
The family tree of coffee companies with ties to Intelligentsia spans the coasts. Since 2007, more than 20 alums — roasters, baristas and buyers — have opened their own shops. Many of those entrepreneurs credit Intelli’s training program that emphasizes artisanship and apprenticeship.
In many ways, Watts, who joined Zell and Mange in 1995, is the soul of the sourcing and roasting operation. He now primarily works abroad, meeting with farmers in countries around the world. But for years he worked directly with roasters and front-line staff in Chicago.
“Three years in is when I really caught the bug,” he said. “By year three we had collectively spent enough time playing with (roasting coffee), trying to understand the differences and details of chemical transformation. It’s a rabbit hole I’m still falling into. Then the deep fall came two years later when I began traveling to producing countries, and the curtain opened.”
This spring he moved his full-time residence to Colombia after initially setting up a field office in Bogota to be closer to his family, the supply chain and the company’s primary producers.
Any discussion of execution and education, former staffers say, begins with Watts.
“Geoff is an inspiration to me, and without him and his contributions to our industry, I am not certain where we would all be today,” said Xavier Alexander, who spent eight years at Intelligentsia and is now co-owner of Metric Coffee, a four-minute walk from Intelligentsia’s Roasting Works along the Fulton Street industrial corridor.
“When I first moved to Chicago, I did what any other coffee nerd would do and that is, make my rounds to all the coffee shops and roasters in town,” he said. “Intelligentsia was by far the most advanced and quality-focused roaster, which made me an instant fan.”
Devotion to cooperative and supportive coffee sourcing is a pillar that resonated with Alexander.
“Intelli understands their place in specialty coffee history, and that pioneered many of the systems we now use today,” he said. “Without them, I am not sure we would have a clear path to build from and express our own version of coffee to our customers.”
Watts’ path is clear — to reveal coffee’s full spectrum of flavors. Former colleagues who have branched out on their own champion Intelli’s onboarding program that emphasizes palate development and flavor identification. At its core is Watts.
“I think roasting is definitely a craft that takes a lot of time and repetition to learn. Intelli was the best place for that,” said Alex Burbo, who opened Littlefoot Coffee Roasters in Grandville, Michigan, after eight years at Intelli. Burbo started as a production assistant packing coffee in 2008, and rose to head roaster and green coffee buyer before he left in 2016.
“As a new roaster, I was given certain coffees that I would roast five to 10 batches a day,” he said. “With every batch you start to notice how even small variables change your roast dramatically. I took notes with every batch (and had) notebooks full of times, temperatures, gas adjustments, final roast specs.”
For Burbo, learning the application of heat and how long to apply it, to produce the right levels of sweetness, was a lesson in humility, patience and restraint. If beans have too short a stay in the drum roaster or temperature is too low, flavors don’t have time to develop; if they stay too long, bitterness can creep in and overpower, or you can simply burn the batch.
“Learning how your moves can change a coffee is crucial,” he said. “Panic moves in roasters can almost always be tasted in the final product. Your job is to release the flavor profile with heat and stay out of the way.”
Taste acumen is strengthened through cupping sessions, where single cups of coffee are brewed and tasted to zero-in on individual characteristics, much like a wine tasting. At most roasteries, it happens daily to ensure production is on point.
Jen Apodaca worked at Intelligentsia’s operation in California from 2010-13, went on to become production manager at Blue Bottle Coffee and is now owner of Mother Tongue Coffee in Oakland, California. She called cupping with Watts “one of the most important milestones in my career.”
It’s a key component of the company’s internal culture, which at times can be obsessive over perfection and flavor extraction.
“Intelligentsia is about being the best, and competition is encouraged,” she said. “We competed with each other for sure, but at the end of the day all the roasters were on the same team.”
The spinoff culture
A big hurdle for many small businesses is turnover, and Intelligentsia is no different. When a staff member leaves, especially from the roasting or quality control areas, oftentimes it’s to join a competitor or start one. Watts sees it as a byproduct of one of the company’s foundational principles — to advance specialty coffee.
“I’m rooting for them,” he said. “We’re a small company. I saw each of them as little ambassadors and bringing the message to another audience, taking with them the core values to a new space.
“It’s painful for us, of course. You spend time with training and development, and you have to start from the beginning. But it’s easy to see why they want to get out and stretch.”
McLaughlin said replenishing the roasting roster is just part of the business.
“It’s super hard,” said McLaughlin, who took over as president and CEO in 2012 after stints as general counsel and director of green coffee. “The cool part is it does create this constant movement of ideas with the business. And you don’t get stagnant.”
Geographically, roasters with ties to Intelli extend in all directions of the U.S. In addition to Apodaca and Burbo, Jared Linzmeier started Ruby Coffee by roasting out of a garage in Portage, Wisconsin. He now has a roastery in Nelsonville and cafe in Stevens Point. Tony Konecny opened YES PLZ Coffee in Vernon, California. Andrew Heppner started Populace Coffee in Bay City, Michigan, and has expanded to Detroit and Petoskey. Matthew Borg opened Carrier Roasting in Northfield, Vermont.
Gabe Boscana founded Maquina Coffee after spending three years at Intelli. He recently secured a permanent roasting facility in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, after receiving startup help from friends at Snowdrift Roasters in Roscoe, Illinois, who executed roasts until he could install equipment.
Boscana credits his time at Intelli, where he served as national roasting manager, as essential to his career.
“Excellence is what drew me to Intelligentsia,” he said. “I learned leadership and compassion and the art of importance of listening. I also learned how important integrity is.
“It’s a sign of true success when your student becomes a better version of you. It’s what you want to happen.”
Overshadowing the individual moves away from Intelligentsia’s orbit has been the company’s overall growth across the U.S. While its stature as Chicago’s biggest roaster remains with six coffeebars in the city, four have opened in Los Angeles since 2007, followed by two in New York City, two in Boston and one in Austin, Texas.
“There’s a strong Chicago-LA connection,” Mange said. “All our coffeebars are representative of their neighborhood. We don’t do anything cookie cutter.”
Growth beyond Chicago
Twenty-five years ago, when Intelligentsia staffers were dialing in their first espressos, Zell said the goal was simple: to have freshly roasted coffee in ChIcago. It was such a priority it was roasted right in the cafe.
“There was just a lot of effort to get established,” Zell said. “The start was humble and earnest. I don’t think we had a plan beyond making our single coffeebar great. Our timing was very lucky with the culinary scene.”
Intelligentsia officially opened its doors Oct. 9, 1995, as Chicago was emerging onto the national dining scene with the success of such restaurants as Charlie Trotter’s and Blackbird. As the restaurants earned national recognition, diners followed and Intelli was swept into the current.
“The early days were both exhilarating and very difficult,” Mange said. “No sleep, strapped for cash, and we were very young to be doing what we were doing. But the fact that our coffee was, simply put, better than anything else out there, made it rewarding and energizing. All we had to do was get someone to taste the coffee, that’s where the proof was. We weren’t selling, we were telling the truth.”
By 2001, roasting operations moved into the Fulton Market facility. In 2003, Intelli opened its second location with the Monadnock Cafe in the South Loop and began to accentuate high-end furnishings like an Italian espresso bar. Locations in Wicker Park and Logan Square and near Millennium Park followed.
“We were doing something that was going against the tide,” Zell said, noting how the company’s identity was a stark shift from Starbucks.
Along the way, Intelli introduced other practices now considered mainstream in specialty coffee:
Direct trade relationships with coffee farmers
Seasonality, limited availability of roasts
Promotion of sites of origin, inclusion of farm information
Marketing of unique flavor notes, profiles
“I’m so proud of all of it,” Mange said. “We built this company on the pursuit of excellence.”
Intelli’s momentum was a factor when the company turned its eye on a new frontier — California.
The leap to LA
Intelli expanded into Los Angeles in 2007 with what is considered a groundbreaking coffeebar in Silver Lake. A top priority was placed on a polished culinary experience with exclusive roasts and drink preparation center stage. Modern techniques were fused with rare coffees, and high-end decor featured intricate tile work, marble countertops and hand-crafted porcelain cups.
It was a potent blend of celebrity, novelty and flavor innovation.
“The goal was to blow people’s minds,” Watts said.
LA took to it in a big way.
“That’s where we took the next step and turned toward the national and international scene,” Zell said. “Design is woven into the DNA of Intelligentsia. Coffee tastes different in the wrong cup. It’s all touchpoints in the experience.”
Three more cafes followed in Southern California — Venice Beach, Pasadena and Hollywood — which further intertwined the coffee and cocktail scenes. New competitors, like G&B in 2012 and Go Get ‘Em Tiger in 2013, led by a partnership of Kyle Glanville and Charles Babinski, spun off. The coffee culture in the city is now thriving.
“We developed a culture of obsession around (flavor) extraction and had young people stoked about coffee in a city where there was no existing culture,” Watts said.
The move transformed Intelligentsia’s trajectory.
“If we stayed in Chicago only,” Watts said, “we’d be a different company today.”
In 2013, Intelligentsia pivoted east and opened its first cafe in New York City, inside the High Line Hotel. With an eye on further expansion, Peet’s purchased a majority stake in Intelligentsia in 2015 and paired it with the acquisition of Portland, Oregon-based Stumptown. The moves joined two of the top brands in the specialty coffee market.
Zell said changes with the sale to Peet’s have been strictly operational to gain administrative and logistical efficiencies, and greatly boosted distribution. There’s been no influence on Intelli’s core principles. Coffee decisions remain in-house and independent.
“We do our thing, and that’s that,” he said. “We’re still chasing perfection every single day.”
The new financial backing helped accelerate a push into new markets — Watertown, Mass., a Boston suburb, in 2016 and Austin in 2019. Intelligentsia has also rebranded itself visually with new packaging, introduced a bag portfolio, experimented with premium instant coffee, and pushed deeper into micro-lot and limited-edition varietal coffees.
What’s next
The future for Intelligentsia beyond further cafe expansion and green coffee sourcing is a bit up for grabs with the COVID-19 pandemic depressing foot traffic at cafes. McLaughin said the company has been able to absorb the disruption due to a larger-than-expected uptick in home consumption and retail sales.
He attributes it to brand loyalty and gaining entry to Target stores nationwide this spring (and a potential reach of more than 1,400 locations). Intelli was already in Whole Foods stores in large metropolitan markets and on shelves in regional grocers like Wegmans.
“Home consumption has been through the roof,” McLaughlin said. “Grocery has certainly been a source of growth for us. It’s a validation of the specialty coffee opportunity.”
Zell said there are other areas of the U.S. that are underserved by specialty coffee, as the LA market was pre-2007, but is keeping prospects under wraps. McLaughlin said more concepts with instant, which uses a freeze-drying method to crystallize grounds and preserve flavor integrity for up to a year, are in development.
McLaughin said Intelligentsia has long held the belief coffee can achieve the same culinary standing as wine. He said instant could be a way to preserve and feature noteworthy coffees in new ways and for longer periods of time.
“One of our frustrations as coffee geeks is we can only have 1-2-3 coffees on the menu, but our lineup is 10-15 deep,” he said. “If we can figure out how to make it work, we can make (a cafe) like a wine bar.”
Watts, on a recent video call from Bogota, shook his head in response to the changes the company and the industry have undergone together.
“It’s pretty incredible to think of what the industry looked like when we started and today. It’s unrecognizable,” Watts said. “The way people think about coffee now and 25 years ago. The underlying themes are the same, but the idea of coffee quality has entered the mainstream.”
