A Tale of Two Cities
Early morning flight today: 6:00 A.M. from Chicago to Los Angeles. That only means that I am already here at O’Hare at 4:30 A.M. Not much good about that. As you may or may not know, I am the founder and CEO of Intelligentsia Coffee. The purpose of this blog is to hopefully illuminate (for even just one person) the challenges, frustration and satisfaction that one finds in running and growing a high-end (boutique?) coffee roasting company with both wholesale customers and one’s own coffee bars/retail stores. Along the way there may (or may not) be some commentary on restaurants, inevitable ramblings about my daughter (Scarlet, now 5) and wife Emily, as well as general commentary on Chicago and Los Angeles, two cities that I enjoy for rather different reasons, perhaps beyond the obvious.
As it stands, we have three coffee bars in Chicago and a roasting facility (Roasting Works) in Chicago. We have been working on opening a coffee bar in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles and a Roasting Works in the Glassell Park neighborhood. The process of opening in Los Angeles has been a bloodletting in terms of both time and cost. To say that getting through the licensing process in Chicago is comparatively easy, only reflects on how achingly slow and disorganized the various public departments are in L.A. Each should open in the next 30-60 days, power and permits, ahem, permitting. We have been working on them for almost a year. But as they say, hopefully the juice will be worth the squeeze. I think it will be.
Don’t let it get to you, after I spoke to Wilbur, it sounds like they are wonderful spaces. I always try to envision water rolling off my back every time things start to go ‘imperfect’ for a project. I honestly hope everything goes well for you, and that the bloodletting stops very soon.
-Ryan
Looking forward to future posts boss,..
LA has charmed me over completely. Sun Palm trees, wrestlers and great Mexican. Just doesn’t get better.
Great to get to read you like this!
Can’t wait for more to come!
Hope to be over there in the rat race soon, visa pending.
If nothing else this blog will take care of my (chronic) writing jones. Thanks for the (I guess?) encouragement.
Welcome to the blogosphere! (We needed another Doug!) ;)
Hi, I stumbled upon here while desperately searching for info on Intelligentsia LA opening. I am highly anticipating it, although I wish I lived closer to Silverlake. I hope Intelligentsia will raise the bar for espresso drinks in the LA area. I wish you all the best and hope Silverlake turns out to be an excellent home for Intelligentsia (outside of Chicago, of course).
Mr Doug Zell,
You’re up and running. Congrats!
The cafe looks great and it’s obvious you’ve a truly talented and expert staff.
I think L.A. is long overdue “truly” specialty coffee retailers and who better to lead the charge?! (no knock to the efforts of those who’ve certainly helped pave the way)
It’s also exciting to have another operator opening in town, who I believe brings a different approach to retail coffee, but that also helps give the industry (on this level) much needed exposure in the L.A. market.
I guess I’ve felt that although there have been good operators, and there are certainly some very talented barista’s (i?) in town, the culture of specialty coffee has not really found a home in L.A. yet. I believe a lot of that has to do with the lack of better representation in addition to some demographic issues.
I also think part of that missing element has been the intelligent and savvy marketing efforts of operators like yourself and La Mill.
Ultimately, our consumer has yet to be exposed to the progress being made in sourcing and the artisan preparation of espresso and coffee that I think is going to take the L.A. market to new heights of appreciation.
This is all very exciting for our neighborhood and to the (new) burgeoning L.A. coffee scene.
I hope these two concepts are a complement to one another.
Cheers!