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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.
Doyle writes:
"It remains to be seen how well my home neighborhood's (Doyle lives in the Loop) diverse mix of fat-wallet yuppies, working-class office drones, and penny-pinching students will take to being charged $3.50 for a cup of regular coffee. If I were Intelligentsia, I'd worry about those latter two groups. Not for nothing, but they're the majority down here, and I don't see them doing anything other than walking right back out the door and over to SBUX or Caribou Coffee when the Clover-only menu makes its Randolph Street debut on Monday."
Time to slow the roll, Mike. We placed a call to Intelligentsia for comment and none other than founder and CEO Doug Zell returned the call.
Zell defended the use of the Clover, as well as getting rid of giant servings and unsightly signage and discontinuing customer loyalty cards as being consistent with Intelligentsia's mission of raising the bar for what customers expect when they step into one of their shops (for more on this philosophy, please feel free to re-read our interview with Zell from this time two years ago).
"These decisions were geared to move us away from the sort of fast food approach of other coffee shops and into a more intimate and personal customer experience," Zell said. "We still believe that the taste of our coffee is the most important issue."
As for Doyle's charge that a $3 cup of coffee has gone the way of the dinosaur and New Coke at Intelligentsia, Zell replied, "That's completely untrue." In fact, the company's "Pick of the Day" standard black coffee tops out at $2.65 for a large cup. Is it still pricey for a penny-pinching student? Not when one considers that that's only a dollar more than most diners we've frequented in recent months, and the quality of the coffee is better by leaps and bounds.
Zell concedes that the changes Intelligentsia has made may have lost them some customers. "But we also believe that implementing these changes will attract more customers than we'll lose." Zell also recognized that there's a delicate balance between the ambition of Intelligentsia's philosophy and trying to maintain humility in carrying it out.
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A downside to the internet is that anybody with a computer can publish and feel like his opinion is worth something, see Mike Doyle for example
Sorry, did it (the starbucks website for Clover) say that it runs your freshly brewed coffee through a 70 micron filter AFTER Brewing it? WTF? "No, no essential oils and coffee essence for me, thank you."
In the world of chemical processing, which is what coffee brewing is, 70 micron is huge. The essential oils are probably on the order of 1-10 nanometers in size. That means the 70 micron filter is 7,000x to 70,000x larger than the individual oil particles. That is a bit like trying to stop an ocean of preschoolers from descending on your mountain of easter candy by putting up a second Sears Tower somewhere between Central Park Ave and Elburn and hoping they can't find it between the two towers.
A 0.2 micron filter is the size used to remove bacteria. 70 micron is for removing visible particulates so you can hold up your clear coffee mug to the light and be assured that there are no funny particles in it except for those that came from the cork in your bottle of whiskey.
"diverse mix of fat-wallet yuppies, working-class office drones, and penny-pinching students"
Anyone else he needs to slag off who's clearly below him?
I was a fan of Intelligentsia when I lived in Chicago. When of the only saving graces of Los Angeles is that when I moved here an Intelligentsia opened up here. (Soon to be a second.)
However, this is an expensive city compared to Chicago; the daily brews here made via Clovers are currently at 4.25 for the cheapest cup. So, Mr. Doyle might not be too far off... I know that Chicagoans wouldn't ever stand for that though.
There is one thing for certain though, Intelligentsia's coffee has only gotten better; their different blends and harvests are unique and amazing in taste. It is quite a serious dent in the wallet though. But this is LA; even a simple coffee shop likes putting on a show.
Looking at Doyle's site he seems a bit impressed with his "accomplishments" as a blogger. Someone who relentless reiterates how they are a "born-again" Chicagoan and how they gave up New York is not impressive.
http://www.chicagocarless.com/bio/
Dunkin' Donuts coffee, hot, cheap, tasty, caffeine-y. Paying for the extracted bean from the branch of a virgin tree nestled in the crook of the arm of Jaun Valdez? You're paying for the fanciness.
Doyle refers to himself in the 3rd person. That sums it up.
I thought I was the only person who thought Mike Doyle was a deutschebank.
I think he should just come out and say that as a working class, penny pinching blogger drone HE can't afford it.
Have you seen his post where he spent the entire time complaining about the fact that the CTA didn't issue a press release about the fact they were reopening an auxillery entrance at the Harrison station?: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-doyle/cta-mum-on-new-polk-stree_b_165762.html It was truly bizarre. The guy is obviously a complete idiot and he has very strange priorities.
Oops. Didn't mean to use the phrase "the fact that" twice in one sentence.
Ah yes, because the best thing to do in a craptastic economy is to RAISE prices.
Tell me, amidst cutbacks and job losses, what do YOU think people are more concerned with... "quality" or price?
Intelligentsia was always more expensive than its counterparts. The people that are more concerned with cost can go across the street (literally) to the dunkin donuts on jackson/dearborn.
Actually, if they are the only ones raising prices *and* quality, they may win on this. If the cups sell for twice as much but they only sell half as many, they are going to come out ahead. And there will always be some people willing to splash out occasionally (think young men on first dates with young ladies, or especially older men on first dates with young ladies).
Matt,
The people who are more concerned with price than quality already are getting their coffee one block south at Dunkin Donuts or one block west or north at Starbucks or a block and a half south at Caribou. They wouldn't choose Intellegencia if they didn't care about quality. And I think to most people a price increase of around 50 cents is not a huge deal, even in this economy. People are more than willing to pay a little more for even better quality. And your argument is pretty much academic. Intellegencia already made this change at the Broadway location and if it didn't work they obviously wouldn't be making it in the loop. If anything, it would be more likely to backfire at the Broadway location because the people there are mostly neighborhood residents and thus more likely to be repeat customers. The loop location draws mostly tourists who are very unlikely to care about price (and they normally wouldn't even know the price until after they order). The other customers at that location, office workers and students, nearly always come to Intellegencia specifically because they like their product. That can be seen from simple observation. There has never been a lot of people who come in just to pick up any cup of coffee. That is what they do at the dozens of other coffee shops in the nearby blocks.
Didn't think about him writing for the Huffington Post. I guess when you give away your work for free, digging up scratch for coffee *would* be tough.
There are people who see nothing wrong with spending $11,000 on a coffee machine?
This is why the terrorists hate us.
Does anyone else think it's ironic that a guy who keeps reminding us that his values are centered on Buddhist teachings is ranting about the social injustice of $3 coffee?
THAT's why the terrorists hate us. If $11,000 machines and quality upgrades turn you off...go elsewhere, little lotus flower.
I went to the Intelligentsia on Jackson/Dearborn this morning, and my large coffee was $2.05
I would never pay that much for a cup of coffee. But I do like Intelligentsia coffee, and I'm fortunate to have a place half a block from my apartment that is not an Intelligentsia, but servers their coffee. It is a bit pricier than other places, but nowhere near $3.50.
I would never pay that much for a cup of coffee. But I do like Intelligentsia coffee, and I'm fortunate to have a place half a block from my apartment that is not an Intelligentsia, but servers their coffee. It is a bit pricier than other places, but nowhere near $3.50.
I really never fully understood buying a cup of coffee at a cafe. I buy beans, grind them, and brew them each morning. I buy fairly traded beans from all over the world, support a local independently owned coffee shop, and end up spending only $0.60 per large cup of coffee (16 oz.)
This morning I drank a delicious cup of Ethiopian coffee that was better than any I've had from Intelligentsia, Starbucks, Dunkin Dont-nuts, caribou, or any other shop.
Thank You Star Lounge!
dagwood has it right. when a pound of coffee at, sayyy, Metropolis runs 13 or 14 a pound. for two people, you can get two mugs of coffee each every morning for right around two weeks if you're careful with measurements. that's getting great coffee for scant cents a day. Plus you don't have to use a paper cup, or wait in line for each individually brewed cup and you can have an elitist attitude toward your neighbor who is trying to find a bank to approve his coffee loans. And, true, one can make the argument "why not get 5$ worth of Eight O Clock and be happy?" Why wouldn't I be happy? Because I also don't drink two buck chuck and call it good. There are ways to get wonderful flavorful food and drink without spending your savings.
FYI - Star Lounge is selling you Intelligentsia coffee...