Here are three things to know for a Wednesday, or at least some stories out there that I found interesting.
One, a production story from Business Week, as the Coffee Board of Kenya raised its production forecast for the East African country by just over six percent based on better weather than expected. Read it here.
Two, Chicago-based Intelligentsia Coffee Roasters is building a new retail store in Pasadena, California. It will be the third location for the company in the Los Angeles area. Doug Zell promises the store will be as revolutionary as Intelly’s Venice operation but not in the same style. It will be designed by the same firm that created the Venice store.
Three, these first six images from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) telescope are amazing!
As much as I literally flew to Los Angeles just to see the Venice Beach location and I do like what they are doing out there, is Venice Beach really that “revolutionary”?
Don’t get me wrong, the interior design and eco-friendly approaches are quite extraordinary, but “revolutionary”? Really?
Certainly four espresso stations that twist, turn and ped up and down are cool and sort of steampunk-ish in design, and the “hello, nice to meet you here at the pastry case, please come with me to a station to make your coffee” is an interesting twist to the old problem of fielding customers to different stations, but the gamut of brewing methods they offer were only on offer during the weekends at their “slow bar.” What if the customer wanted a vac pot on a Wednesday?
I think Intelligentsia Venice Beach is a fantastic spot manned by amazing barista, but revolutionary? Evolutionary, certainly. But “revolutionary” – I’m hesitant to go that far.
But whatever the case, whenever I visit my niece a trip to any of the Intelligentsia’s is always on the books!