"I stared at it for three years thinking how cool it would be as a wine bar," Brian Knowles told Austin Monthly, describing the view from behind the register of his coffee window at the Baker Center. What he was looking at was the old school's band room, a low brick building with wide windows and plenty of natural light. On Friday, Sept. 18, 2026, that room opened as Terrible Love Wine Bar.

Hyde Park's other big opening this September followed the same pattern. Panciuto, an Italian American restaurant from Mo Pittle, opened on Tuesday, Sept. 15, at 4413 Guadalupe St. It took over the space that used to hold Umarell, where Pittle had been a co-owner. Neither opening needed new construction. Both came from people who already knew the rooms. At the Baker Center especially, they've turned a building most neighbors walked past into a place with somewhere to sit in the evening.

The Band Room Now Stays Open at Night

Terrible Love has been around for a few years. Knowles started serving coffee at the Baker Center in 2023, first from a trailer and then from a coffee window he built into a converted boiler room. According to Austin Monthly, a line forms each morning along the lavender and primrose next to that window. The wine bar is a few steps away and adds the evening hours the coffee window never had.

He changed the space as little as possible. "I wanted to make a wine bar that fit this spot that already existed without trying to change it too much," Knowles told the magazine. Here's what you'll find there:

• The room. It's open and decorated in mid-century style, with comfortable furniture. You can carry your glass out to picnic tables in the garden.
• The list. Wine director Kendall Jackson built the program around natural wine. The bottle list includes lesser-known producers from Japan and Palestine. The long by-the-glass list is sorted into categories like "Bold Rosé" and "Juicy Red."
• The vermouth. The bar opened with four vermouths. Austin Monthly reports that Knowles came to love vermouth in Spain, and that the bar carries that many even though distribution in Texas is limited.

"I just want it to be really community-focused, a place for people in the neighborhood to hang out," Knowles told Austin Monthly.

Why the Baker Center Needed an Evening Draw

The wine bar matters because of the building it sits in. The Baker School was built in 1911 and stayed in use into the 1990s. Austin ISD sold the property in 2017 to Tim and Karrie League, co-founders of Alamo Drafthouse, who planned to make it the cinema chain's headquarters. After two years of renovation, it reopened in 2019 as the Baker Center, with Alamo in two of the three floors of former classrooms.

Then things changed. KUT reported in December 2025 that after Sony acquired Alamo Drafthouse in 2024, Alamo ended up using half of one floor, and the Leagues started looking for new tenants. By early 2025, KUT said, the tenants included the League of Women Voters, the Travis Audubon Society, architects, Austin Classical Guitar, interior designers and a photography studio. Offices bring people in during the workday, and the building held three markets in 2025 to bring in the public. Karrie League told KUT exactly what she wanted to add next: "Building out the coffee shop, a wine bar right next door, and putting the community garden in the front."

The wine bar was the last piece of that plan. Knowles told Austin Monthly that it was Tim League's idea to turn the boiler room into a coffee shop in the first place.

The Baker Center Rooms a Neighbor Can Actually Visit

Most of the building is still offices. The Baker Center's community directory lists the Texas Archive of the Moving Image, the American Genre Film Archive, Metro Private Cinema, Austin Together, Harbor Health and several design and engineering firms. The directory isn't dated, so think of it as the owner's current list, not a confirmed roster for this month. These are the spaces open to the public:

1. The coffee window in the old boiler room, the original Terrible Love.
2. The band room, now Terrible Love Wine Bar, with garden seating outside.
3. The gardens. The owners describe a community garden and patio for tenants and neighbors, along with an orchard. Studio Balcones designed the patio for the original coffee trailer.
4. The Press Room, in the old cafeteria kitchen. It holds about 60,000 printing blocks that were used for cinema ads and posters. KUT reported that manager Travis Smith has run it since 2019 and that the collection covers about 50 years of cinema history. The Baker Center's site lists public and private workshops.
5. The Rosette, which Austin Classical Guitar created after moving in during the summer of 2021. It hosts concerts, classes, lectures and receptions.
6. The cafetorium, which the property lists as available to rent.

On Guadalupe, Pittle Reworked a Room He Already Knew

Panciuto's story follows the same pattern, just at a smaller scale. Pittle was a co-owner of Umarell, the Italian restaurant that used to fill 4413 Guadalupe St. Panciuto, in the same space, is his sixth restaurant. Austin Monthly reports that he wanted to serve the residents of Hyde Park, which the magazine calls his beloved neighborhood. He described the goal as "satisfying and affordable in a space with a local diner feel."

The name is pronounced "pan-chew-toe" and means "pot-bellied," and the portions match. Austin Monthly's review points to the sausage and mushroom cavatelli, the chicken parm alla vodka, the zucchini fries and the focaccia pizza squares. The menu also has bolognese, a 14-layer vegetarian lasagna and spaghetti and meatballs. The dining room is done in dark red with black-and-white checks, with Italian-style art from AO5 gallery and neon signs by Todd Sanders of Relic Roadhouse.

Right now Panciuto serves beer and wine. A full bar is in the works, so a cocktail will have to wait. Pittle also encourages taking leftovers home. "I love baked pasta leftovers," he told the magazine.

The Next Six Weeks, Mostly in Rooms Built for Something Else

With dinner on Guadalupe and wine in the band room, the late-fall calendar fills in. Several of the best dated events this fall are in older Hyde Park buildings, and one of them is inside the Baker Center.

Dates come from Hyde Park Theatre, Austin Classical Guitar's Rosette schedule and the City of Austin's Elisabet Ney Museum events page. The Prince Achmed weekend is the easiest pairing on the list. The Rosette and the band room share the Baker Center grounds, so a 4:30 p.m. show and a glass of wine afterward stay on the same property. The Homes Tour on Nov. 8 is an easy afternoon with a natural lunch stop on Guadalupe.

The One Old Room Still Closed

The Ney is the exception. The Elisabet Ney Museum is the historic home and studio of the sculptor who moved to Austin in 1882. The city calls it a cornerstone of the Hyde Park National Register Historic Neighborhood. It's closed for renovations and is scheduled to reopen in spring 2027. That means the Nov. 7 park day and the Nov. 8 tour check-in happen on the grounds while the studio itself stays closed. The city's page says admission will be free when it reopens.

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