Intelligentsia
After months of construction, the high-end Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea opened last night at Sunset Junction in Silver Lake. And it looks as if they’ve just barely managed to fling open the doors. At 9 this morning (they open at 6), the sleepy-headed neighborhood was out in force, ordering up caffe lattes with pretty patterned foam, espresso and coffee brewed cup by cup in a Clover machine. Outside on the shaded patio in front, yappy little dogs snarled under the tables while their owners got a caffeine fix. Inside, you can sit at stools along the marble counter, and shop for bags of the Chicago coffee roaster’s renowned direct-trade and organic beans.
Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea, 3922 W. Sunset Blvd., Silver Lake; (323) 663-6173. Open daily from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.
-- S. Irene Virbila
Photo by S. Irene Virbila
Intellegentsia actually is the best coffee in the world! It was one of the main things I missed when I moved east to NYC from Chicago. I was so jealous when I read on the JuliB site that LA was getting one. You guys should cherish it! I'm stuck here praying that I see an announcement in JuliB one day that a NYC franchise is opening.
Posted by: rachel | November 19, 2007 at 09:44 AM
I hate the place the decor is cold,the coffee is cold ,the staff is cold. Wish they had put it in Santa Monica does not fit the sophisticated and artsy crowd of Silverlake and the name !. Should have stayed selling in the supermarkets thats where you will have a good coffee.I guess the landlord and owner of Stella couldn"t bare Casbah making a business he could not capture. its the rumer but makes sense . The decoration the original owners made with Figaro on Vermont was to much to bare and then they sold it to stay with the palce on Sunset after so much copying in Figaro imagine! This we have from very good sources The morroccan tiles. The parking is good in the day I will give them that
Posted by: steven | November 13, 2007 at 11:40 PM
O my gosh. The best Soy Vanilla Latte I have ever had!
Posted by: Jamie Nemetz | November 01, 2007 at 01:30 PM
I don't know about "best coffee in the word" (such an American statement), but its the best I've had in California.
Posted by: carlos | October 30, 2007 at 11:54 AM
Lived in Chicago for 13 years and remember when Doug and Emily opended their storefront in the Lakeview neighborhood before it was trendy.
It is the best coffee in the world. The passion they have for the coffee bean is that of a winemaker for the perfect grape and bottle of wine.
You won't be dissapointed...and you won't want regular coffees ever again.
So glad to have them in LA, even if I have to drive to Silver Lake from Santa Monica to get it!
Posted by: Bob Kasunic | September 21, 2007 at 09:38 AM