deirdrestearns:

LA Intelligentsia #3

Big News! My favorite local coffee shop is opening a third Southern California location, this time in Pasadena.  Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea, originally out of Chicago, IL, has an innovative way of serving customers.  Their Venice location is set up with individual barista stands.  Customers go up to each barista and place an order, rather than being filtered through a long line, as most coffee shops operate.  The design is efficient in serving customers (much more so than their Silverlake location) and gives you an opportunity to chat with the barista while they serve you individually.  Not only are their drinks and snacks delicious, they give you a unique and well-designed third placeenvironment to enjoy both in Venice and Silverlake.

Their new Pasadena location is being designed by Ana Henton, who also designed Intelligentsia’s Venice coffee shop.  Henton is a principal of Mass Architecture & Design, a small firm located in Silverlake, just a few blocks from my house.

In an interview with LA Weekly, Henton talked about having Intelligentsia as a client,“Because the lifespan of these places is short, it’s a real opportunity to do something different. But that only happens if the client is willing to go there. With Intelligentsia Venice, they REALLY wanted to go there, so that was great for us. I call [it] “micro-architecture.” It was really about these pieces. They wanted the machines to be completely reconfigured. They were a client who knew exactly how they work, and what works.”

image via paristryst