One of the franchise’s Chicago outposts will no longer serve pre-brewed coffee out of urns and instead offers customers fresh, Clover-brewed cups.

One Intelligentsia franchise in Chicago has announced that it will stop serving coffee out of carafes in favor of fresh brewed cups for each customer. The store, in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood, is the first of the franchise to abandon the quick-serve, insulated urns used to serve drip coffee quickly with stores in Los Angeles and the rest of the Chicago area expected to follow suit.

The change, “lets us offer great seasonal choices to every customer – more akin to a wine bar than a café,” said Intelligentsia founder and CEO Doug Zell. “We want to push people’s understanding and engagement of how great coffee can be.”

The company’s argument for the switch is that each customer who orders drip coffee will get to experience their beverage fresh brewed, before it’s had a chance to sit for too long inside the pump-driven urns. Each cup ordered will be brewed in the café’s Clover, the headline-making, vacuum-driven machine capable of brewing coffee to the most exacting specifications.

Customers will choose either an 8 or 16 oz. size for between $2.00 and $2.65. Zell said the default choice will be the store’s coffee of the day, but coffee drinkers will also be invited to choose more seasonal varieties that have only just been harvested in recent months. While these brews are more expensive, Zell says it gives customers a chance to “participate in the process of rewarding great growers for their work and allow us to remunerate the grower accordingly as you would a great winemaker.”

Changing the meaning of “to-go”

But what will this change mean for the customer who just wants to dash in and out? Many times, I’ve ordered a cup of regular coffee at a coffee shop like this one just because I didn’t want to wait in line behind the people waiting for their mochas and lattes to be brewed. For Intelligentsia customers, won’t this mean the end of running in and grabbing a cup to go? Zell says the added time it takes to fresh brew each cup will be minimal and says baristas will take orders while customers stand in line to help have the coffee nearly ready once the customer approaches the counter.

I think what Intelligentsia is saying, without making it blatant, is that they’re really only interested in customers who are willing to give a few extra moments each day to their coffee. For them, coffee isn’t about refueling or checking off one more item on the day’s to-do list. It’s about an experience. The company took another step in that direction last year when they eliminated 20-ounce sized cups, arguing that smaller cups let customers better enjoy their coffee’s flavor.

You can guarantee that some customers will find this process, frankly, annoying and time consuming while others will be willing to take it for what it’s worth. In fact, some readers commenting to the story I came across about this topic on the Chicago Tribune’s website said the move “falls into the realm of ridiculous” while others seemed delighted with the change and looked forward to trying it. Luckily for those customers not willing to wait in line, there are plenty of other coffeehouses to choose from.

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