Like Stumptown, Intelligentsia is a company known for pioneering the US coffee third wave movement.
Intelligentsia Coffee was founded in Chicago, Illinois in 1995 and specializes in high-quality, freshly roasted specialty coffee.
Intelligentsia was founded by Doug Zell and Emily Manzi, who moved to Chicago from San Francisco.
The founders were frustrated by the lack of freshly roasted coffee in the city. They opened their first coffee bar on Broadway in the Lakeview neighborhood, selling beans roasted in-house in a vintage Probat roaster to ensure freshness.