Eat Out Chicago!Julius Meinl
In 1862 Julius Meinl owned a grocery store in Vienna, Austria.
At that time, coffee was sold green and unroasted, having been introduced only recently by the Ottoman Empire.
One day, a maid came to him in tears, having saved her wages for weeks to buy a bit of coffee, only to burn it on her stove in an attempt to roast it herself.
That day, Julius Meinl made the decision to be the first European to sell freshly roasted coffee on his shelves.
More than 150 years later, the Meinl family has brought their premium roasted coffee and Vienna Kaffeehaus culture to over 70 countries around the world.