For most people, their first experience of the Baker Center isn't visiting one of the many offices inside. It's grabbing a cup of coffee at Terrible Love, the little cafe on the center's grounds. That location has made owner Brian Knowles sort of the unofficial envoy, greeter, and tour guide for the whole building.
"So many people would ask me, 'What's this behind you? What kind of offices are in there?'" Knowles says. "Because I was the front desk, almost, I ended up fielding all of those questions and learning more than I would have otherwise."
Knowles fell into the coffee business almost by accident. In 2017, he'd paid off his student loans, quit his desk job, and started working at Brew & Brew on the Eastside. "I was there about two and a half years, and by the end of my tenure I was only doing mornings, only doing coffee," he explains.
His next stop was going out on his own, setting up Terrible Love out of a converted horse trailer that he eventually towed to Baker Center. After a couple of years operating from the trailer, he laid more permanent roots in the current brick-and-mortar home in the old boiler room building.
Now, this avowed morning person is expanding to evenings. Next door to the old boiler building is the old band building, and Knowles is halfway through converting it into a wine bar. He'd been eying the space for a while, admiring its natural light, and convinced the building owners by emphasizing the community aspect.
"They really want this to be a community hub," Knowles says.
The new wine bar will specialize in Spanish-style sipping vermouths — "with a little orange slice or an olive, it's incredible" — along with low-ABV drinks and mocktails for the increasing number of non-drinkers.
From morning coffee to evening vermouths, Knowles has become the heart of a growing community hub in Hyde Park, proving that sometimes the best neighborhood institutions grow organically from one person's passion.