I just received an email from a friend who lives in old town section of Chicago. He tells me that Intelli has opened a shop there. http://www.intelligentsiacoffee.com/loc ... -coffeebar Good news for me as now that I've retired it seems I visit friends there every summer. And for breakfast Wicker Park is just too far away to get a decent cup of coffee.

They've been expanding like crazy the past few years.

It's a similar location to their Millenium park and Merchandise Mart site; not much residential or work, huge amount of visitor foot traffic. There other three Chicago stores on Broadway, Monadnock and Wicker Park are where people live and work.

UltramaticOrange wrote:They've been expanding like crazy the past few years.

Let's hope they don't dilute out their talent too much or get seduced by the dark side like St####cks, or P##ts

I think it's rather the opposite, at least for now. Intelligentsia, Counterculture, Stumptown and many others are all scrambling to fill the "pinch me in case I'm dreaming, does it actually exist" market niche that has opened up at one step up from Starbucks quality.

For those of us who have been around specialty coffee for a while, it's both delightful and hard to believe.

I think, in the post mortems, market experts may point to the smart phone. Now, when people want something, they can get instant info on the best that's within a few minutes travel. If you look at where the 3rd wave cafes are opening; "smart phone traffic" may be what they are after.

Insightful observation; it's a new world!