Scratch Baking Company

The setup of Scratch is unique -- you enter the door at the bread counter, where you can order loaves of bread, bagels, and pre-made sandwiches. Then the line moves on to the cookies and baked treats -- blondies, trail bars, and cookies are my favorites! This past weekend for the first time they had croissants. Then on to the pastry counter, where everything looks and tastes amazing. Just before the register is a fridge with cream cheese, some staples (bacon, eggs), and some prepared foods -- their chicken salad is my favorite. Then the coffee bar. Everything I've had here has been fantastic, and while the long line can make you question if it's worth the wait -- it moves fast and is ALWAYS worth the wait.

I came into the shop knowing I wanted a salt bagel and to then find MAINE SEA SALT bagels was quite the delight. We arrived around 9:45am and they were sold out of their everything bagels (had plain, sesame, and sea salt left). So get there decently early if you want to make sure you get your pick of the litter. Cream cheeses were also available in the cooler but we got some at the grocery store to not break the bank

The best fresh sourdough bagels around. Did you know that fresh sourdough isn't meant to be toasted? They're so deliciously perfect anyway that they don't need to be toasted. Crusty outside with soft insides. I moved away for a few years but it was one of my bestie's birthday so of course I had to make the drive back and surprise her with birthday morning bagels. I got there at 7:30am on a Wednesday and they had already sold out of both everything and sesame bagels. Ended up grabbing sea salt, plain, and cinnamon raisin. Sea salt will always have my heart. Their cream cheese is so delightfully whipped, don't forget to grab some from the cooler!

Great bagels! My favorite is the Asiago and Montreal Spice bagel. The line can be very long but usually moves fast. Rotating bagels and pastry’s. The scones are great as well. The coffee can be dairy heavy at times but overall a great spot for breakfast and bakery treats!

Scratch Baking Company has been a neighborhood favorite for over 20 years, offering handcrafted bagels (and assorted accompaniments), breads, pastries, and variety of sweet treats, traditional and not so traditional. I chose a cinnamon roll, at my sister’s recommendation, and she had shortbread. I would not have chosen the cinnamon roll had my sister not recommended it because it just didn’t look that good. Well, it wasn’t that good, it was incredibly good. Dare I say the best cinnamon roll I’ve ever had? Yes, I dare say, though the comparison to other cinnamon rolls is a tad unfair given that Scratch’s version was a laminated pastry (think croissant, and all those thin, buttery, crispy layers) which I don’t recall ever seeing before. In a word, or fourteen: it was incredibly good and rich and satisfying; so flaky, so rich, so yummy. The shortbread was also excellent, and it was a treat to have a really well-made shortbread, plain. By itself. No topping. No flavoring. It was as shortbread should be: a buttery, melt-in-your-mouth indulgence that crumbles delicately with each bite. It was elegant in its simplicity, yet utterly decadent.