Trifter

From the outside it looks like a quaint house with a good stockpile of wood for burning. That wood however, is not there to provide heat during the cold winter months. it serves to bake and flavor the bread loaves and pizzas this store specializes in. It is put to excellent use.

What Scratch Foodworks does is simple enough. Their goal is to provide simple, hand-made, home-made food. They bake 12-15 varieties of bread each week allowing people to come in and pick-up loaves on the weekends. After they bake their breads they load-up the oven with tomatoes and garlic for the pizza sauce (yes it really is made on site).

The most fun I had from Scratch was when I ordered a pizza. You see, Scratch offers a unique menu item: “trust” pizzas. This means you tell them you want a pizza and they put on it whatever they want. What I received was obviously their version of “the works”. It was a sixteen inch round (the only size offered), loaded down with an amazing variety of specialty home-made meats and fresh vegetables all over mounds of perfectly browned and gooey cheese and a delightful chimichurri pesto sauce. Now, that would be enough to make a great pizza, but, that was just the window dressing on a crispy, chewy multi-grain crust, a crust that brought a lot of flavor and did more than just provide a platform for the toppings

I’ve had a lot of pizza in my life. I’ve been to the two great American pizza towns and nearly everywhere in between. I’ve had the large thin New York style slices and the deep cheesy Chicago-style pies. I’ve had their signature pies and I love them for what they are. I’ve been to the country of origin for pizza and had the margherita, a small flat pan of dough covered in tomato sauce, topped with mozzarella and sprinkled with basil. I’ve had gourmet pizzas with duck and plum sauce and all sorts of high brow toppings. I’ve made my own pizza from boxes, mixes and even from scratch. I’ve eaten all of those pizzas and loved them for the tradition, innovation and cultural specializations that they represent. Scratch’s pizza deserves a place right next to all those as a completely unique pizza experience.

Were that all they offered it would be enough, thankfully though, the owners and proprietors of Scratch Foodworks also treat us to additional delights not least of all are their cured and smoked meats including pancetta, pepperoni, and capicola. Scratch Foodworks pride themselves on their uniqueness, individuality and their dedication to those traits shows in their food, food which rises above. I whole-heartedly endorse this place to anyone eager to experience startlingly different but in no way pretentious food that ties into our culture as Americans while also improving on age-old dishes.