Some assumed that the venerable Café Allegro would be eclipsed by the UW building that recently filled the parking lot a few feet away. It used to be that patrons of the U District's oldest espresso joint, founded in 1975, would follow the sun, taking their cups from the benches in the alley to the parking curbs, and sometimes all the way to 15th Avenue Northeast. Yet even deprived of sun and easy parking, Allegro customers have stayed loyal. The alley is darker, but plantings and bollards make it a reasonably pleasant space. (The UW is to be commended for sympathetic design.) Today owned by longtime barista Nathaniel Jackson, the Allegro has kept its core crowd of graybeards and hippies happy, while filling up with patrons silently pecking away at their keyboards. ?Brian Miller 4212 University Way N.E., 633-3030, cafeallegromusic.com