A couple of weeks ago I went to the Santa Monica Farmers Market (SMFM) for a supply of apricots, peaches, nectarines, heirloom tomatoes and some other treats that you may have enjoyed at the link by now, but this post is not on the SMFM it is on a place that blew my mind.
On this trip I was lucky enough to be accompanied by my wife, an avid coffee drinker / geek whom I could share the awesomeness with. After leaving the SMFM we drove a few miles south down into Venice Beach and arrived at the 3 week opened, Intelligentsia coffeebar. We met up with Nick Griffith, sales account manager / 2nd place barista at the nationals, whom gave us the tour of the place. In case you have not heard of Intelligentsia coffee they are hands down the next best thing to happen to coffee.
To get a job at Intelligentsia you have to be more than passionate about coffee, you have to know that that is what you want to do as a career. They will turn down anyone with coffee experience, because they want people who will be able to adapt to their environment. If you are lucky to get hired you then start as a barback and begin your barista training which usually will take about 1 year. Yes, 1 year to become a barista. It goes to show you how much time, effort, passion, and the level of purism they have towards coffee. Here you see the cafe, very industrial looking with exposed piping, red bricks, and in the middle of it all are the beautifully impeccable espresso machines, pastry case, and the slow bar.
When you get there you order thru one of 4 baristas, whom each of them has their own station with an espresso machine that adjusts up and down to their height level, their own supply of the ever-so-cool looking Strauss milk glass bottles. There are daily printed menus that showcase the fresh roasted coffee. You can order an espresso beverage, a drip brewed coffee, or through the slow bar.
Here is our barista making us a single origin El Salvador espresso shot, then he made us a cappuccino, and we had some of their decadent pastry offerings made by LA baker, Comme Ca.
The slow bar was what I was waiting for. Basically, you gotta be the “man” or as they say in Mexico “el mero mero” to lay your hands on this station. The slow bar is a siphon brewer were basically you heat up the water in the glass beaker at the bottom, then the ground coffee is poured on the top part and when the water reaches a certain temperature it will rise to the top beaker where it will brew the coffee and right before it drains itself back into the bottom beaker the barista applies a stirring technique that puts the finishing touch. I had used a home version of this before, which they sell there, but I had never seen the level of techniques nor the attention to detail that goes into it. Um, wow?
Here you see whats left of the coffee being brewed in the top part as it makes its way back down where it is brewed and ready to serve. We had a single origin Kenya, which was perfect with the lemon tart. The coffee’s grapefruit notes and crisp, juicy acidity where balanced by the clean and light body that you get from the siphon’s brewing method.
I have worked with coffee for 8 years, have had exposure and training to the many levels and complexities that it takes to get coffee from origin to your cup, have tasted many coffees, and I have not met anyone as knowledgeable as the people at Intelligentsia. Nick really took care of us, he explained all the machine specifications, the challenges of opening the store, the experiences/training that everyone goes through, and we left there completely speechless. I can almost guarantee that once you go here, drinking coffee at your favorite coffee shop wont even come close. Hmm, maybe you shouldn’t go here as nothing will ever live up to it. I asked Nick, “When is the San Diego store opening?” He just laughed! Another fun day at work.