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Café Allegro
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Café Allegro is a coffeeshop in University District in Seattle. It is notable for being one of the first espresso shops in Seattle and for its place in the history of Starbucks as the place where founding proprietor Dave Olsen designed the Starbucks coffee product line. The cafe is in an alley out of sight and has multiple entrances and rooms. History The building in which Café Allegro is housed was built in 1909. The space was used for retail sales, a bank, and as a funeral home and mortuary until 1975 when it became Café Allegro and the first espresso bar in Seattle. Founder Dave Olsen chose the location because it was in an alley opposite the busiest entrance to the University of Washington campus. Allegro is also the oldest coffeehouse in Seattle. Howard Schultz, the CEO during Starbucks' international expansion, said that "Café Allegro was a prototype for what Starbucks later became, although its style was more Bohemian and it did not sell coffee beans and merchandise or cater to an early-morning, urban, coffee-to-go clientele". In 2020 the owners of Cafe Allegro commented about the difficulty of maintaining small independent businesses in Seattle in the context of many other neighborhood businesses closing due to urban development policy. Dave Olsen Schultz said of Olsen, "Dave Olsen is right at the heart of the memory of Starbucks... Dave is a rock, part of the foundation of the company" because under his supervision Schultz "never had to worry about the quality of the coffee". He purchased coffee by the pound from Starbucks, and co-developed an espresso roast with them which was darker than most other roasts but still lighter than the darkest roast. That espresso roast remains the standard Starbucks espresso offering.<ref name"pour100"/> In the mid 1980s, Starbucks ownership and corporate governance changed, and Olsen became more involved in their activities.<ref name"pour100"/> On Monday 18 August 1987 Olsen became the head buyer and roaster of Starbucks.<ref name="pour100"/> See Also
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