90Two B's, Back to Back

On the corner of 15th and West Ave, a white stucco building with a black fascia wears the same mark three times. On the side wall it sits in a mint-green panel inside a heavy black frame: two capital B's standing back to back on one shared stem, with a curled flourish at the foot, and across them BAKED BLISS in white serif capitals outlined in black. Two black diamonds float above it. Over the patio opening the mint panel comes back as a long header, with a small monogram tucked between the two words.

It is painted straight onto the wall. The mint follows every ripple of the stucco, and the panel sits over the ghost of an old opening: you can see the raised edges of the patch running right through the paint. Around on the deck the monogram turns up a third time, big and black on white-painted cinder block, with the mortar lines showing through the letters. No signature is visible on any of the three: artist and year unknown — know who painted it? Tell us.

The building is an old gas station, and it had been several other things over the years, a restaurant among them. Kim Cutler started a project she called Fun Fridays in October 2013; after a call from Joanna Gaines asking whether she could sell wholesale, she and her friend Kathy Wise converted the old station into a commercial baking space. The Baylor Lariat calls this 15th Street spot the bakery's first commercial space, and it opened to the public in May 2017.

She and her dad turned an old FEMA trailer into a storefront and added a deck. Today the baking happens in the building, and customers are served from a trailer window beside the deck. People encouraged Cutler to name the bakery after herself. She insisted on Baked Bliss, and the Lariat's 2023 profile puts the reason plainly: This is not the Kim Cutler show. Which is why the name on the wall, three times over, is two B's and not a K.