Allegro Coffee Roasters

Consistently good with large sit down area. Great place to take a break. My "go to" place for always great cappuccino and variety of new concoctions. Particularly nice is the maple oat cappuccino th at uses oat milk and a little maple syrup if you're in the mood for a a sweet espresso concoction.and lactose free..so much better than the syrupy overloaded sweet coffees of the 2 main coffee places in town (and elsewhere)...plus..there's a piano that sonetimes gets played and duplo for kids, magazines, etc. .let's support our small Local businesses!!!!

The perks of this place are that it's large, so there is always seating, and it's open much later than other coffee spots in the East Bay (you can stay until Whole Foods closes). The staff is also friendly. I have yet to ever have a coffee or tea drink that would keep me coming back for more, but because of the other perks--I keep going back for more.

I’d never thought of coming to Allegro before to do some work, and it does seem a bit odd to come to café in a supermarket. But it’s quite big (with more seating than Philz across the street) and feels like more of a separate entity than, say, a Starbucks counter in a Safeway. You’ll have no trouble finding a seat and there’s seating outdoors in the sun too. Power outlets are also available and WiFi is free (and fast enough for my needs). It can be pretty noisy – there’s music playing and coffee roasting shenanigans going on in the roastery that occupies the same space, but it can combine to form a pleasant kind of white noise : ) They made me a flat white even though it’s not on the menu ($3.50 for a single), and I also had a Firebrand cookie (Valrhona chocolate and caramel, baked in a wood oven in Oakland, $3). The flat white was good in consistency and taste but I think I’d get a double shot next time – it could have done with a higher ratio of coffee to milk. I felt that it was better than a Starbucks flat white, but perhaps not quite up to the Best of the Bay standards (Black Diamond, Algorithm, Blue Bottle, etc.) The cookie was quite intense in its chocolaty-ness (yes, I know that’s not quite a word) but nicely balanced by the caramel, resulting in happiness. I also had a “batch brew” coffee – Sulawesi Peaberry ($2) which was actually very good even though it wasn’t a fresh pour over. They staff were also very friendly, and patient in answering my 20 questions! In addition to the normal rating, I’m also giving Allegro 4/5 green stars for social and environmental impact. Allegro coffee has pretty good standards – in 2014, 23% of the coffee was Fair Trade certified, 50% was organic, 29% was Rainforest Alliance certified, and 2% was Smithsonian songbird-friendly certified. They say that their coffee is not all Fair Trade certified because certification only applies to co-ops and they deal with many single-family farms where certification is not possible. I know that some coffee companies have their own standards that they say exceed Fair Trade standards and that’s kind of what Allegro are claiming, but to they rely too much on trust in the Whole Foods ethos and want us to take their word for it; they need to do a better job at transparency and also their coffee labeling. For example, Counter Culture Coffee publishes the prices they pay for coffee and also employ a third-party-certified direct trade system for fair pricing and share extensive information on their relationship with individual farms. Allegro also have no information on energy use, etc. (Counter Culture offset all of their energy use and use compostable bags). The Allegro café does a good job at waste minimization (clearly labeled bins for composting and recycling) and most materials are eco-friendly, but their coffee cup lids are not compostable. The milk that they use is Clover Organic, which is important (for me). One bonus is that you can eat anything that you pick up in Whole Foods (or make yourself), so you can find food that suits your needs to go with your coffee.

When my small mom and pop coffee shop changed hands, and their hot chocolates became less than inspiring, I was really happy to discover that Allegro, in my neighborhood, was making truly exceptional hot chocolate. it is safe to say, I've become a regular, and choose to meet clients (I am a small business person) at Allegro, over hot chocolate. In fact, one night when you were out of chocolate, I went into Whole Foods and bought you another bag, and GAVE it to the baristas. Not long ago, you significantly diminished the amount of chocolate that you put in your drinks. I asked yesterday for the old formulation, just another little squirt of chocolate, probably no more than was already spilled on your catch plate, because I DIDN'T COME IN FOR JUST WARM MILK. I was told if I wanted this, they would have to charge me an extra 75 cents. I could justify spending four dollars for a hot chocolate, and always left a dollar tip for the baristas, but I will not pay the surcharge in order to be able to TASTE THE CHOCOLATE. Sorry, you've lost a devoted customer. I'll be making my own hot chocolates with my own Valrhona chocolate at home from now on. And I'll find another place for my client meetings, and my warm beverages with friends and family.