Cult Coffee Favorite Intelligentsia Adds Prime New Hollywood Location

Big news for fans of caffeine, as it can now be confirmed that one of the country’s most recognizable coffee names, Intelligentsia, has landed a killer new location in the heart of Hollywood. Once open, the storefront will be the first new Intelligentsia space in greater Los Angeles in seven years.

This newest outlet will drop along Hollywood Boulevard at Cahuenga, a bustling business area for travelers and office workers alike. There’s not a lot of detail yet on what the space itself will look like, but given the company’s other locations expect a fair amount of colorful tile and medium-toned wood, unlike some of the more whitewashed and sterile shops that have been cropping up around Los Angeles of late.

Intelligentsia is both a retailer of coffee and a roaster, founded by Doug Zell and Emily Mange in the mid-1990s in Chicago. The company has an almost cult-like following as one of the leaders of the third wave coffee movement that has overtaken most major cities, and there is a massive employee tree of folks who have branched out from their Intelligentsia roots to start their own successful coffee companies nationwide. The company currently has locations across Chicago and in Boston and New York City, and roasts in a number of different locations (including Los Angeles). Locally Intelligenstia has footprints in Venice and Pasadena, as well as a flagship in Silver Lake that still draws daily lines out the door.

Google Maps

More recently, Intelligentsia has come to embody the changing face of coffee. The company was acquired by Peet’s Coffee & Tea in 2015, right after Peet’s also purchased similar Portland brand Stumptown — both for tens of millions of dollars. Each has so far been largely allowed to maintain their image in big urban markets, and the new location in Hollywood should only fuel demand from locals and tourists alike. Expect an opening sometime in the fall of this year.

Intelligentsia Hollywood
6401 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA

• A New Specialty Coffee Shop Adds to Rampart Village’s Development Boom [ELA]