Intelligentsia Coffee Broadway Coffeebar

Black Cat espresso is the order that built this room, silky and balanced with a hint of sweetness, and it has been on the bar since the beginning.

Black Cat at the center of the bar

Black Cat anchors an order at Broadway. It drives the milk drinks too, lattes included, where the espresso rather than a syrup carries the cup. Around it, Intelligentsia’s direct-trade, in-season sourcing puts freshly roasted blends and single origins on the menu, brewed as espresso, batch brew, pour over or Chemex, which covers everything from a fast cup to a deliberate manual one.

Tea is handled seriously as well, through a full menu of Kilogram teas, but the identity of the room stays with coffee, and specifically with Black Cat and the rotating brewed coffees beside it. If you want to understand the house, order the espresso twice, once alone and once with milk.

A Lakeview flagship built for volume

Broadway is the Lakeview room tied to one of Chicago’s defining specialty-coffee stories, and since its earliest days as the company’s only location it has worked as a gathering place. It reads as a busy urban flagship on North Broadway rather than a quiet side-street café: exposed ducts, bright lighting, large communal tables, industrial but welcoming.

There is wifi, and patio space outside. Service is counter-led and efficient, with lines at the busiest moments that move quickly, and staff who know the coffee without making a performance of it. It fits the neighborhood: a work-friendly room full of regulars, young parents and commuters, where grinders, steaming milk and manual brewing stay visible.

Order the espresso, then look at the case

Start with a Black Cat espresso, or a Black Cat latte if you want milk, then choose between batch brew, Chemex and pour over depending on how long you have. Once the drink is settled, the pastry case is worth a second look.

The canelés come crisp-crusted with pillowy centers, the butter croissants are flaky, and the gateaux Basque are custardy, which puts the food above the usual coffee-shop standard. For anything longer term, the retail shelf carries the direct-trade beans and single origins the bar is pouring, bought in season and roasted fresh, so a good cup here can become the coffee you make at home for the next fortnight.