Building from Scratch

The logic of Durham dining is a bit bourgeoisie. Magnolia Grill is a spore of the fine dining scene. Whole Foods and the farmers’ market are see-and-be-seen places. The beers tend to be designer crafts brews. It is this logic which splashed the Bull City across the pages of the New York Times dining section earlier this year.

Yet this logic also ignores the whole Wings ‘n’ Things end of the spectrum. The middle portion of the spectrum aside (i.e., taco trucks), what is there to actually connect these seemingly disparate ends? What else but sugar, of course.

Scratch Bakery, which opened in June on downtown’s brick-paved Orange Street, is the one-bakery answer to Durham’s dearth of a great palace of sweet (and savory) delights during the work week. Reared at Magnolia Grill, Scratch owner Phoebe Lawless serves up an array of sweet treats—from pies to peach tarts to chocolate delights—Monday through Saturday. The display of baked goods galore will make your mouth water on sight, and live up when they hit your tongue. Also, Scratch’s products are farm- and oven-fresh (Lawless made her name selling her desserts Saturdays at the farmers’ markets).

Scratch also serves up savory lunchtime options like chicken rillettes well that will make the guilty feel as though they’ve atoned for their indulgence. But anything this good—sweet or savory—can’t be so bad for you.