Metropolis Coffee Company
3123 N. Broadway
Marketing coffee this way is new, says Connie Blumhardt, publisher of the trade magazine Roast. Until recently she’d never heard anyone explicitly sell coffee as seasonal. (She knows both local roasters well: Roast named Intelligentsia its 2007 large roaster of the year and gave Metropolis the award in the microroaster category.) “Historically the way coffee’s been sold has been more like cereal,” says Doug Zell, Intelligentsia’s founder. But if the idea of its seasonality catches on, coffee options may soon be very different: more diverse, fresher, and–if you believe the hype–better.
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Coffee is already seasonal, both Zell and the Dreyfusses say–they’re simply letting people know about it. At Metropolis there are customers who say, “‘Oh, I love Costa Rican–only Costa Rican will do,’” says Jeff Dreyfuss. “But six months out of the year that’s a disservice.” –Nicholas Day