When LaTosha Baker first walked into 3615 Potomac Street, there was nothing there. Well, there was a building, but it had been completely devastated by time and being uninhabited. It would have made sense for Baker and her partner, Elena Coby, to turn around. But Baker had a vision of golden gates as she walked through those doors.
"This space kind of chose me," Baker says. "It was imperfect. Me and my partner completely rehabbed this building. We didn't know what we were doing. So we called in friends and everyone kind of helped build it, but it really chose me. I remember passing by it many times. I was like, 'No, that's not it.' And then I came in."
The renovation took five years of steady work and love. But when Baker opened the doors to the Drip Community Coffee House about three weeks ago, all the struggle and work had officially paid off.
When you walk into the Drip, the experience could not be more different than what Baker and Coby must have faced. The doorway, which sits just steps away from South Grand, is somewhat innocuous, until you notice it's literally colored gold. A few stairs up, you'll find a hallway with a library of "banned books," and then you're greeted by a large space positively covered in artwork (her own and Coby's) as well as, in all likelihood, a Drip staff member.
"Welcome home," they'll call out in greeting.
The space then opens up into a large room that is filled with squishy-looking furniture, including rows of sofas that face each other, with a devoted kids corner replete with books, toys and enchanting decor. This room holds the counter where you order and a pastry case.
The Drip sells both coffeehouse fare as well as some food. Coffee and espresso drinks range from what you'd expect (drip coffee, Americano, latte) to what you'd never expect, such as the Riot, a spicy coffee that Baker says was inspired by the fervor of the Ferguson protests. It's like "that internal flame," she says.
The food options include a few sandwiches, such as a cajun turkey, and salads including a black-eyed pea and a cob, as well as a hummus plate. Across the board, prices are reasonable. Drinks max out at $4.25 for a 16-ounce mocha or flat white, and food is $3.25 for a cup of soup to $7.25 for a salad to $8.88 for a salad/sandwich combo.
The kids' prices are even more reasonable. That's by design and drawn from Baker's life experience. She remembers living in Seattle, working at Starbucks while trying to raise her three children and struggling to make ends meet.
"That was important to me, that my kids saw the coffee industry, but we were priced out," Baker says. "Sometimes people are so worried about the overhead instead of thinking about the community. So you come here, you have some great food, some yummy food, and you can afford it."
All of it speaks to why Baker wanted to open a coffee shop in the first place. A St. Louis native, she was in Seattle when she heard about the shooting death of Norvelle Brown in 2007. A St. Louis city police officer, he'd been killed while patrolling north city.
"I said, 'I got to go home to do something,'" Baker says. "I want[ed] to be in a place where it was totally a mess, where I can be part of the cleanup part, a part of the solution, not just a part of capitalism. ... We can come up with a solution. Superman's not coming. No one's coming to help us."
She didn't yet know how to use an espresso machine, so she thought her shop might just serve drip coffee, and that became its name in her heart: the Drip ("It became a thing with the young people [later]. ... It was just funny," she says).
You might think that opening a coffee shop is an odd dream for someone who initially lacked any coffee experience. But Baker says it makes total sense.
"Coffee was born from us," she says. "It was born from Black and brown people, right? And a lot of Black and brown people are scared and don't like it. They assume that it's not for them."
Baker and her coffee — which is sourced from California's Red Bay Coffee, a Black-owned roastery — is truly for Black and brown people. And for everyone else.
"We're about great food and community," she says.
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