Posted by TheShot on 24 Feb 2011 | Filed under: Consumer Trends, Foreign Brew, Quality Issues
Opinions are like… Well, let’s just say that everyone’s got one. And when it comes to America’s best coffee cities, Travel + Leisure magazine recently published theirs: America’s Best Coffee Cities – Articles | Travel + Leisure. The article opens with a rather puzzlng personal endorsement of Steps of Rome in SF’s North Beach, where [...]
Posted by TheShot on 23 Apr 2009 | Filed under: Beans, Consumer Trends, Foreign Brew, Machine, Restaurant Coffee
Esquire magazine named this place 2008 Restaurant of the Year (among new restaurants). The same Nov. 2008 issue also crowned Dominique Crenn, executive chef at SF’s excellent-but-underappreciated Luce, as 2008′s Chef of the Year. While L2O is a pretty fabulous restaurant, calling it the year’s best is debatable. However, there’s no question this is a [...]
Posted by TheShot on 01 Jan 2008 | Filed under: Foreign Brew, Quality Issues
If Peet’s Coffee & Tea has been a slow-growth contrast to Starbucks‘ cancerous proliferation in recent years, Intelligentsia‘s expansion has been deliberately glacial. And why not? You get big, you get less selective about your coffee growers and suppliers. You start accepting employees with fewer skills and less passion about truly good coffee. And how’s [...]
Posted by TheShot on 08 Nov 2007 | Filed under: Foreign Brew
On the heel’s of Chicago’s informal crowning as America’s caffeine capital, today’s Chicago Tribune published an article that provided a light, unscientific, comparative review of 32 different take-out coffee offerings in the Chicago area: Know your Joe — chicagotribune.com. Instead of the single espresso, the yardstick used at CoffeeRatings.com, the Tribune based their evaluations on [...]
Posted by TheShot on 10 Apr 2007 | Filed under: Foreign Brew
Last Friday, the Chicago Sun-Times published a brief guide to the independent coffee houses of Chicago: Independent coffeehouses :: Chicago Sun-Times :: jump2web ::. Although limited, it’s not a bad reference (other than the annoying pop-ups) — and something I might put to use when I’m back there next week. I only wish they would [...]
Posted by TheShot on 09 Mar 2007 | Filed under: Barista
At last month’s 2007 Great Lakes regional barista competition, reigning U.S. Barista Champion, Matthew Riddle of Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea in Chicago, defended his title for the right to compete at May’s U.S. Barista Championship: No regular Joes | Chicago Tribune. Tweet
Posted by TheShot on 31 Oct 2006 | Filed under: Foreign Brew
The November issue of Chicago magazine reviewed the best straight up cups of coffee available in the Loop: Black Gold | Articles | Archives | Chicago magazine. Not surprisingly, Intelligentsia came out on top. Tweet
Posted by TheShot on 31 Dec 2005 | Filed under: Foreign Brew
Every once in a while I have the privilege of visiting some place else. Eventhough American cities are becoming more and more homogenized, not everything is a Starbucks. When it comes to espresso, Chicago has a few notable exceptions that I experienced this year. Name Address Neighborhood Espresso [info] Cafe [info] Overall [info] Intelligentsia 53 [...]
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