teatpuller, I'm really going to have to go back and check now. I really didn't tune into it to tell you the truth. It's always so busy there with people ordering in one line and then standing around waiting, that I just didn't look to see where the coffee was being poured or made from.

grahamhh wrote:Stopped in tonight at the Randolph st. location to see if the changes would spoil my loving relationship with this store. And guess what? My love remains. Admittedly, the wait is a bit longer. Basically, a drip coffee now takes as long as a latte.

I stopped in this morning to the Millennium Park store to take advantage of the roaster's special ($3 off a selected pound, which today is the Eros Blend) and got a cup of coffee as well (12 oz pick of the day free with the pound). While it was not particularly crowded, the wait time was only slightly longer than if I had ordered a drip coffee and was definitely shorter than if I had ordered an espresso-based drink. They seem to be using a system whereby they are brewing multiple cups at a time when they can (i.e., when several people in line have selected the same bean) into a french press carafe and then pouring those out into 8, 12 or 16 oz cups based on the orders. While this cuts down on the "one cup per brew cycle" individuality of the Clover, it moved things along fairly quickly while I was there. They also have reconfigured the space behind the counter -- bringing the Clovers to the front -- in a manner that seems designed to increase speed and efficiency. I would have to go back and see how it works when there is a longer line (it was only 4 deep when I was there), but I suspect the wait times are not going to be prohibitive for many.

They still have urns at Jackson, which is why you didn't have to wait any longer than usual. They plan to replace them too in a few months.

I think for occasional customers who see Intelligentsia coffee as a special treat, 50 cents to a dollar more a cup will be a small price to pay to get a chance to chat with the barista who custom brews your cup of coffee.

But for this every morning customer and longtime Intelligentsia advocate, they've lost me. I hope it works out for them, because there are so many things to admire about their company, and I will definitely continue to enjoy their beans at home, but I can no longer afford the time or money to be condescended to on a daily basis.

"Perfect" being the enemy of the "beyond excellent" comes to mind-- WHAT IS WRONG WITH DRIP COFFEE??

Returned this morning to see how things were running during "rush hour" - right around 8am.
The biggest misstep on the part of Intelligentsia seems to be getting rid of the overhead menus.
NOBODY knew where they were going. However the new layout, with the register deeper in the
store, and the Clovers / pickup shelf closer to the door, makes more sense and streamlined
ingress and egress. Things were going smoothly - damned if that store isn't always ridiculously
well-staffed.
I still wholeheartedly agree with the previous post - that Intelly's drip coffee was fantastic and
though the Clover coffee may be nominally "the best," it isn't better enough to stake your whole
business on. If I was Intelligentsia trying to sell this transition, my argument would be based on
the waste reduction provided by the Clovers. Any cafe worth its salt rebrews coffee around twice
an hour, which results in a lot of dumping. With the new system, they never have to waste their
fancy direct trade organic micro lot whatever beans, and each cup is as fresh as possible.

There's an article and long set of comments from GapersBlock on this:

http://gapersblock.com/drivethru/2009/02/14/intelligentsia_dumps_the_urns/

Did I read correctly that their small size for coffee is the 8 oz. cup? So it's $2 for 8 oz.? Is there even a 16 oz. size offered now? And how much could that be?!

On the one hand, I'm surprised at myself for balking at that price, or even the hassle (re-designed store or not) of getting coffee. I will gladly wait 2+ hours for a $12 burger, or even 4+ hours for a $15 bottle of beer. I always champion artisans and local producers. And yet... I cannot get excited for this new policy from Intelligentsia. Then again, especially when it comes to food, feelings are rarely objective. LOL

I went to the Jackson St. location again, to get my breakfast blend beans, and my free small coffee. It came out of the urn. They said they are getting rid of them soon.

I mailed customer service and received an email from Doug Zell. They really think this is the right move.

Wednesday at 7 45 am, I stopped in the Lakeview location for beans. I've never seen it so empty. 1 table taken and no one in line. By the time I left, there were two people behind me.

The new "small" is really a thimble. (Though, yes, it's free)

And I still do not care for the Clover. I see the attraction, but as a regular morning coffee, it is too thick for me to enjoy.

To thick? I actually found it much less acidic (seemingly thinner) than the regular coffee.

Yeah. The coffee oils are pretty harsh in it, IMO. I think it gives it more viscousity

Mike Nagrant put up a really thoughtful article on the state of coffee, touching on Starbuck's don't-call-it-instant instant coffee as well as Intelligentsia's more recent retailing decisions. Doug Zell chimes in with a comment suggesting that even as their coffee prices go up, they remain at a smaller price point than a craft beer at a bar (and wayyyy under the price point of a glass of wine at a bar, too).

It's a fascinating idea, and one that puts their new decision in a different perspective for me. Still don't think I'll be stopping by as often, but it's nice to think critically about it just the same.

kafein wrote:Wednesday at 7 45 am, I stopped in the Lakeview location for beans. I've never seen it so empty.

Intelligentsia Lakeview was doing a booming business Saturday 10am, every seat taken and then some, 10 or so to order and double that amount to pick up. Order was quick, pickup annoyingly slow and confusing. Part of the problem was the order person was taking names while the efficient as hell, but impossibly harried fellow, both making and serving finished coffee simply called out the type. "Medium" seemed most popular. One shy young lass waited long past her turn while an overly aggressive bike helmet wearing fellow took the first medium up, sipped with a smile, took a quick turn on the toes of multicolored cycling shoes and walked out the door with a f-you-all bounce to his step.

There were three Clover machines running, coffee decanted to, what looked like, small drip press pots. The barrista moving so fast he was almost a blur, but they were backing up like Hot Doug's at noon. The coffee was fine nuanced, subtle though with a.....Pigmon described it well in his Intelligentsia Coffee in L.A. post, "relatively hollow mouth-feel I very much liked the old Intelligentsia coffee which seemed, at least to my palate, to have a broader more accessible range of flavor.

Enjoy,
Gary

G Wiv wrote:There were three Clover machines running, coffee decanted to, what looked like, small drip press pots. The barrista moving so fast he was almost a blur, but they were backing up like Hot Doug's at noon. The coffee was fine nuanced, subtle though with a.....Pigmon described it well in his Intelligentsia Coffee in L.A. post, "relatively hollow mouth-feel I very much liked the old Intelligentsia coffee which seemed, at least to my palate, to have a broader more accessible range of flavor.

Enjoy,
Gary

I wonder if the Clover uses the same coffee bean to water ratio as the old drip method they had. Maybe that saves a little money in input costs.

This place kills me. I bought a couple of pounds of coffee at the Jackson location. They offered me a small cup of coffee. I asked if I could get it half decaf. "no, we can't do that." They are not allowed to take a cup and fill it halfway out of one urn and halfway out of the other.

Did you ask for two half cups so you could do the combining? That's the silliest thing I ever heard of, enough is enough even if it is free.

nicinchic wrote:Did you ask for two half cups so you could do the combining? That's the silliest thing I ever heard of, enough is enough even if it is free.

I didn't get into it with the fellow, I'm sure he didn't make the rule. I already felt bad for holding up the line choosing my beans and paying with a credit card AND asking for a half decaf. I just said, "oh, OK."

teatpuller wrote:This place kills me. I bought a couple of pounds of coffee at the Jackson location. They offered me a small cup of coffee. I asked if I could get it half decaf. "no, we can't do that." They are not allowed to take a cup and fill it halfway out of one urn and halfway out of the other.

They don't brew decaf urns at the jackson location anymore, so, no they can't do what you asked. Decaf is clover only. They would need to brew a full cup to make your half-caff.

eatchicago wrote:

teatpuller wrote:This place kills me. I bought a couple of pounds of coffee at the Jackson location. They offered me a small cup of coffee. I asked if I could get it half decaf. "no, we can't do that." They are not allowed to take a cup and fill it halfway out of one urn and halfway out of the other.

They don't brew decaf urns at the jackson location anymore, so, no they can't do what you asked. Decaf is clover only. They would need to brew a full cup to make your half-caff.

That makes sense, but I'm sure they could have figured something out. I bought some decaf beans so he asked if I wanted my cup of coffee to be decaf. I said "no.....well, can you do half decaf?" He responded, "no, sorry we can't do that."

there are a number of possible answers to a fairly simple customer request. "no, we can't do that" is not a real good one. Regardless, it's the only place around i can pick up decent coffee, so i just do whatever they tell me.

If each clover cup is made individually, why couldn't he put in 1/2 a scoop of regular and 1/2 a scoop of decaf?

I'll say, at the Monadnock they used to do that, as I trekked there every Tuesday and ordered that exact thing. Two pounds of beans - one of them decaf and a small half caf in a medium cup.

I stopped into Lakeview this Tuesday for beans. There were a few more people than last time - it was 7:50 am. By the time I left 5 people were waiting for their coffee. I got my small comp clover pretty quickly. I still don't much care for it though. (They do put out Sugar SYrup all the time now. Love that!)

The Rwanda beans they have right now are outstanding, though.

leek wrote:If each clover cup is made individually, why couldn't he put in 1/2 a scoop of regular and 1/2 a scoop of decaf?

This is how I brew at home most of the time.

kafein wrote:

leek wrote:If each clover cup is made individually, why couldn't he put in 1/2 a scoop of regular and 1/2 a scoop of decaf?

This is how I brew at home most of the time.

And yet you call yourself kafein...

There are settings on the clover that brew the coffee at the optimal temperature for the optimal amount of time. They do a ridiculous amount of fine-tuning on these settings to get them right for each separate coffee that they offer. I'm fairly sure that no one there would feel comfortable going off the hip and guessing what the best settings would be.

Which sounds silly, in the end, but if their new mission is delivering the best of coffee they're able to, and nothing else - I suppose it fits in.

Over and over and over the top.

I wonder what the South Park kids would have to say about this.

Tribune blog, Monica Eng
Intelligentsia plans a groundbreaking coffee bar in Venice Beach

Llama wrote:There are settings on the clover that brew the coffee at the optimal temperature for the optimal amount of time. They do a ridiculous amount of fine-tuning on these settings to get them right for each separate coffee that they offer. I'm fairly sure that no one there would feel comfortable going off the hip and guessing what the best settings would be.

Which sounds silly, in the end, but if their new mission is delivering the best of coffee they're able to, and nothing else - I suppose it fits in.

they could brew a small clover decaf, pour half of it out and fill the cup with regular from the urn. they probably just want to establish a no "half decaf" rule. which is fine. if i had a hot dog stand i would not put ketchup on hot dogs. but i would expect to piss some people off.

As a bit of a tangent, I was recently in Portland and had a number of cups of coffee at Stumptown Coffe which in my mind is very Intelligentsia-like (read as: also obsessed with farm-to-cup lifecycle and quality control). They brew their coffee in press pots (a.k.a. French press) and then pour the coffee in to vacuum airpots from which they serve your cup. Each press pot (I'd guess they're quart-sized) has a small timer next to it so that they get proper extraction (I would guess that they alter extraction time based on which bean they're brewing, but that's pure speculation).

They even have an online guide to how to brew their coffee in different types of equipment (press pot, vacuum pot, etc

Anyway, my point is that they've made a choice about how they want to brew their coffee, but it's luckily one that still allows for coffee-on-demand from a vacuum pot, so there's no additional waiting in line. They just keep brewing press pots and dumping them in to the small vacuum pots, presumably at a rate determined by how quickly coffee is selling at that moment.

The end result, in my opinion, was a delicious cup of coffee.

-Dan

Appears they have the Best Barista.

http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/ ... rista.html

I've just learned from the manager at the Monadnock location that they will not be going Clover only at that location. They're back to urns.

Best,
Michael

eatchicago thank you for that wonderful news. I was at the Michigan Ave location yesterday and there was a line of fifteen behind me (I counted) at one o'clock and the girl using the clover was visibly shaken. I don't get it really. My coffee was extremly cloudy and bitter. As I was waiting for my large cup, and watching her stirring and stirring, I was saying to myself how ridiculous this was and I just paid $3. I'm going to skip this location, I used to look forward to going there after a shop at Macy's. A quick cup of smooth coffee to walk back to the office, yesterday I left bitter.

I don't know how long they've been doing it, but the Monadnock location has what I consider to be a pretty good lunch deal. Your choice of panini, chips, a drink, and a pickle for $8.92 (that's the total with tax). Considering that the bag of Kettle Chips and the iced coffee I've been getting as my drink would cost at least $3 on their own, that's not a bad deal. It doesn't hurt that the paninis are the best ones available in the loop as far as I know. So far I've had the brie and mushroom, the tuna, and the Italian.