Longtime collaborators Allegro Coffee and Aida Batlle inaugurate Allegro’s new Denver roastery and café with Meet the Producers event
Loyalty and community are paramount to the team at Allegro Coffee Company, headquartered outside of Denver, in Thornton, Colorado. Be it the coffee producers from whom they’ve bought coffee over the past decade or more, to the customers they serve, Allegro seeks to maintain its grassroots, steadfast nature in everything it does. These qualities have contributed in an enormous way to the company’s latest triumph: the first free-standing Allegro Coffee Roasters roastery and café, which opened November 18 in Denver.
To celebrate the operation, which is among the 38-year-old company’s biggest landmarks, Allegro invited one of its most dear producer partners, the famed Aida Batlle of El Salvador, to headline a “Meet the Producers” event for Allegro staff and the public. Aida and Darrin Daniel, Allegro’s director of sourcing, have worked closely since Allegro started buying Aida’s coffee in 2004, and their warm friendship was evident throughout the discussion, which took place yesterday morning.
“Allegro is so solid, such a good company,” Aida said at the event. “It’s a joy for a producer to have the kind of partnership that I’m lucky enough to enjoy with Allegro and Darrin. Being here to see this incredible new space is a huge honor for me.”
Founded in 1977 in Boulder, Colo., Allegro’s reputation for excellence as one of the first certified-organic specialty roasters in the U.S. is one of the qualities that drew Whole Foods Market to the company; Whole Foods acquired Allegro in 1997. In 2013, Allegro opened its first official Allegro Coffee Roasters craft coffee venue inside a Brooklyn, N.Y. Whole Foods, and soon after, did it again in a Whole Foods Market in Berkeley, Calif.
The Allegro Coffee Roasters shop in Denver is the company’s flagship, and its first stand-alone micro-roasting facility.
“Opening ACR gives us an opportunity to take the Allegro experience to a new level,” says Tara Cross, Allegro’s director of marketing. “Opening our ACR Denver roastery gives us a place to play, experiment, and engage with the coffee community on the industry level as well as connect with our local community.
Occupying an old hardware store on Tennyson Street, the Denver store boasts a 30-foot bar, and plenty of indoor and outdoor seating. Coffee is roasted in a gas-fired Loring drum roaster. The espresso bar features three Mazzer grinders, a La Marzocco Strada EE 3-group, a pourer bar, and nitro and cold brew offerings. Ongoing educational cuppings and paired tasting events are open to the public.
“It’s just a stunning space ”I’m so happy to be here to see it,” says Aida, whose coffee ”from her Los Alpes farm ”is currently being served. Noting Allegro’s 30-year history as a wholesaler, and the company’s industry leadership in equitable and direct sourcing, she says, “This is huge for specialty coffee as a whole.”
that’s great!!congrats