100 Trips to Intelligentsia…And I Still Know Nothing

#001 of hundreds

LOS ANGELES — So this idea that I’m going to somehow take a picture of every shot I have at this place is flipping ridiculous. So that’s all done with.

Not that I’m even going all that often now. I’m knee deep in the Chemex world, grinding my beans with some grinder that cost as much as a month’s rent in college and some beans roasted within mere days of consumption. But from time to time, I sneak back to the homeland — maybe grab a sandwich from the Cheese Shop next door — and drop a few bucks on the good folks at the Big I. Screw Starbies. This is now the standard. I’m officially hopeless. I think I actually tasted citrus a few times and thought, “A nice citrus there” in my head. Even if it was really tobacco, I’m falling deeper into the clutches of this madness. Fortunately, I still don’t know what I’m talking about…so I’ll always have that.

In the months since I last updated, I’ve had coffee in a bunch of places, plus I’ve brewed a bunch from a bunch of places in my Chemex pot. Huzzah. So in the next weeks, I hope to catch up on all that. But for now…

Here’s a short summary of my May – August whenver I’m in LA…

–Wake up

–Work

–Meet up with Ben/Gaines

–Eat Fish Tacos/Real Tacos

–Pound a shot at Intelligentsia, often chased by another

–Smirk

 

…and Monday in the D, too (also really the B)

(downed: soy latte, soy latte, shot, regular latte)

DETROIT — After getting out of the hotel at 3:30a PDT, spending the day with a film crew and a car, getting back nearly 12 hours later, I was bushed. So I awoke from a well earned sleeping fit with a hankering for some coffee. Why not hit up two or three spots and compare, me think-ied.

Caribou Coffee is a chain of “Up North” themed shops, with real timbers all over the place. It’s basically a Starbucks with a niche marketing plan…and the coffee may or may not actually be better. Who knows. Maybe they’re trying to make it look like the Pacific NW? And that leads me to some thoughts…

Ever since heading up to Seattle/Oregon, I’ve been amazed at what good PR/buzz/marketing the region has, when it reality it virtually identical to Michigan. Northern Michigan has all the same stuff…trees, artsie gay people running from persecution and lakes galore. It just seems that the location of Seattle et al makes people just kind of love it. But everyone pretty much thinks little or nothing of MIchigan. And perhaps that because our coffee kind of sucks.

That also got me wondering, given our climate…a cup of coffee makes a hell of a lot of sense. It’s warm, it kills the “dark” periods temporarily and it lets you brood with like-minded neighbors who also are looking for winter/rain/clouds/economics to change. Did Michigan ever stand a chance of becoming a coffee-brewing mecca? Maybe if just a couple of snobs would have grown up here? If a publisher is interested, I’d be happy to report this story into book form.

So I matched up a bunch of coffee purveyors on the classic Soy Latte test…

 

Sunday in the D (Well, the B)

(downed: shotzie)

DETROIT — Stevo came down for the Tigers/Angels game (BONUS COVERAGE BELOW!!) and after a hearty food tour, starting at Hunter House, cruising through American Coney, Cupcake Station, Leo’s, the Elwood Grill and virtually every food stand at Comerica…the mind turned to a coffee kick-start.

We were in Birmingham, an upper-crust ‘burb NW of the city. There was a coffee shop that used to be open

right next to an art-house theater on the main commercial street…last time I was here, I saw that it had closed. But seeing as what a great location it was, I figured it wouldn’t be long ’til it reopened. And bingo. Some plucky entrepreneur did just that with brass! So it might be Java Cafe, or Java Exchange Cafe or Java Hutt Cafe…who cares really.

So we jumped in to test out the hand-pulled shots and see what time in was in the Great Lakes State.

 

Yuca’s + ‘gents = Los Feliz Sunshine

“I can’t go a day w/o my sunshine(?)”

(Downed: shot, cuppa clover’d Bolivian “Anjilanaka”)

LOS ANGELES — I never planned on going back today.

I’ve never watched “LA Story” from start to finish in any condition to judge it, but I did gather something about highway traffic signs guiding Steve Martin’s life (I’ll look pretty stupid if this isn’t the case.) The cool thing about this town is that, indeed, the state of traffic can change your fate…often for the worse.

In this case, a jam on the 110-N back to Glendale kept me from going home and sent me instead up the 101 toward Hollywood and into the loving arms of the Carrerras (BONUS BUZZ COVERAGE BELOW!!) and their carne asada taco/burrito two-fer. Riding high from this magic, I decided it would be in good taste to scamper over to Intelligentsia’s friendly confines for a shot/cup/cookie. With a quick order from Benji for an iced delivery, the die was cast.

 

Sunset Junction: Intelligentsia Comes Back Like Jordan, Wearin’ the 4-5

The Fresh Life: Reborn?

(downed: shot, cuppa clova “persephone/alchemy”

LOS ANGELES — At a certain point in the life of this coffee blog, it’s going to just be pointless talking about anything I get at this shop. Sometimes, I think I like it more than the employees do (not the case, but the alpha dogs around there aren’t from LA, so they don’t readily “vibe”…i’ll bet you a case of raw almond butter they’ll loosen up by the next time a cloud blows past in mid-to-late September).

While this proper blog gets it’s proper legs, I’ll avoid getting too misty about this place. But I’m not sure how many more on-time espressos I can injest before I’ll just put up a whole page. This place is crushing it. Someday, you might find me at the Source Awards screaming about how “East Coast ain’t got no love for Black Cat? Ain’t got no love for (if I knew the names of two people who worked there, it would be referenced here)?”

To the experiential ratings hotness:

 

Swork…Eagle Rock

(downed: shot, english breakfast tea)

LOS ANGELES — After a filling meal at Marie Callendar’s (long story), Beck/Maggs and I decided to trot over to Eagle Rock for some Swork action as Beckster had never been there. And considering the frame of mind I’m in, coffee shops might be the place I am more than any other for a month or 500.

Swork kind of rocks. It’s near the Occidental College, so you’ve got a bunch of DS college kids kicking around, plus young parents and then the normal LA writers/drifters/etc. So I dove in to the espresso.