The Roanoker March/April 2017 - 75

DINING | NICE NICHES

ready. He'd had a long-time vision for the little place,
but knew he couldn't make it go without his staff. Before
putting in an offer for both buildings, Webster pulled his
management together and pitched the idea of opening
a breakfast spot. He knew it could be great, but he also
knew he couldn't do it unless his people were on board.
There was no hesitation. They were in.
"We didn't really have a plan [with Scratch]," admits
Webster, shrugging his shoulders and leaning back in one
of Scratch's metal chairs. "I knew I wanted everything
from scratch. I knew I wanted it to be as local as possible.
We wanted it to be a down home country place...a place
that when people walked in, they felt warm."
When Webster says "everything" he truly means
everything. Along with several close friends, Webster
spent the next eight months gutting, then rebuilding
the space, using all locally sourced woods and doing the
work themselves.
"All the wood comes from these mountains," explains
Webster, sitting up and pointing around him. Walnuts,
poplars, cherries, oaks-every log was specially chosen
and transformed by Webster and his buddies into the
walls, counters, tables and benches of Scratch.
And that is just the beginning. The farm tools gracing
Scratch's walls belonged to Webster's grandfather, who
passed away during the building of Scratch. Webster
loves having this daily reminder of his grandfather, as
well as giving customers the opportunity to recognize
and appreciate the tools from yesteryear.
But, of course, Scratch is about breakfast-from
scratch. The peanut butter, jams, spreads and pimento
cheese are all made fresh in-house. The apples are peeled
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and cooked down every day for the Fried Apple Biscuit. The coffee-Rooster Scratch-is roasted on site
and original to Scratch Biscuit Company. The meats
used in items like the The Cowboy Crippler or The
Hans and Franz are wood smoked outside in The Lick
BBQ smokers.
Even the recipes in Scratch's recipe book-down to
the final ingredients for the biscuits and jams-are original creations from hours of collaboration between Webster and his kitchen management.
"I want people to get a good experience in the morning," says Webster. "Breakfast is a very important meal to
me...it is the meal you start your day with. If you come
into a place you like, it just helps carry on into your day."
Scratch's biscuits are all the things a good southern biscuit should be: big and golden round, slightly
crumbly with each bite and tasting of salt, butter and
fresh-ground flour. Their sandwiches range from simple (egg and sausage) to strange (tofu), classic (biscuits
and gravy) to colossal. My husband describes Scratch's
food as "throwback," likening it to an era when everything truly was fresh, local and homemade. "Throwback"
works, until you get to sandwiches with names like the
Hans and Franz, the Bless Your Heart and the Jerry
Garcia, making Scratch seem more of a 21st century
locavore food trend.
To me, Scratch is more than that. I think the essence
of Scratch and its food is nailed in its name: Scratch.
Every bite of every Scratch biscuit I've ever taken-Bless
Your Heart (fried green tomato, bacon and chipotle),
The Colonal (peanut butter and jelly), Sausage and
Egg, Cowboy Crippler (Scratch's lone $9 biscuit and
worth every bite-ask my offensive lineman son)-tastes
homemade, from scratch, enjoyed in a setting that is,
itself, from scratch.
Back in the day (a phrase I find myself using more
and more), places like Scratch didn't need defining.
Every place was a Scratch kind of place. Nowadays,
when most breakfast places serve your peanut butter
in plastic packets, and even the trendy places smack of
sameness, Scratch Biscuit Company stands far apart.
It's like a sort of living history museum, schooling us
on what words like "down home," and "from scratch"
truly mean.
And besides all that? It's just a great way to start your day.

SCRATCH BISCUIT COMPANY
1820 Memorial Avenue, Roanoke
Monday - Friday: 6 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Saturday: 7 a.m. - 2 p.m.; Sunday: Closed
(540) 855-0882
info@scratchbiscuit.com; scratchbiscuit.com
MARCH/APRIL 2017 | 75

http://www.scratchbiscuit.com http://www.THEROANOKER.COM

The Roanoker March/April 2017

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