Goods from Scratch, a bakery slash commissary slash cafe slash neighborhood hangout, isn’t open on weekdays—at least for now. But it’s never really closed. During our excursion to its location at Makati creative and culinary compound Comuna, the place was buzzing with theater actors having their merienda.
A place that smells like freshly baked bread the entire day, I argue, should never be empty. The air demands a whiff, for bread to be eaten, nothing left to go stale.
Ralph Sy started Scratch (as it is known) from his kitchen back in Quezon Province during the pandemic out of a fruitless search for good bread in their locale. Pretty soon he was selling them on Instagram where it now has a sizeable following. Its clientele—including Comuna’s owners—rave about its sourdough bread: hefty loaves with crisply scored and burnt crust that wield little resistance to a serrated bread knife when sliced, a good indicator next to its porous, almost sponge-like insides and slightly tangy taste.
“People rarely know what good bread is,” said Sy, “Much less what to do with it.”
I countered that perhaps we should start with how to slice one properly. Scratch, the cafe, he said, is there to offer a plethora of ways to enjoy one’s loaf. The most straightforward of these is with butter, jam, and a speck of sea salt, or at its most bare when there’s little interference between your tastebuds and the blank canvas that is bread.
But at Scratch, you can take the same slices and dip them in faintly spiced sambal-tinged Turkish eggs, should you want something more filing, having convinced yourself that this bread is worthy of being called a meal. From there, you advance to stuffing it with proteins. Meatballs with red sauce and plenty of cheese. Bouncy focaccia brimming with mortadella, pesto, hot honey, and whipped ricotta, the way Italians famously do it. Or if you’re vegan, a glorious toast topped with hummus, roasted eggplant and mushroom, and pickled onions. Every slice is a promising start when you have good bread.
Toast topped with hummus, roasted eggplant and mushroom, and pickled onions; meatballs in red sauce, with focaccia
Olive oil tres leches
“We really wanted to create a neighborhood spot,” Sy said. It’s a pity Scratch is open only on weekends though as the rest of the week it’s a commissary. But once people heard of how cozy the space is, how filling the sandwiches are, and just how seemingly uncharted territory the compound is, then came the lines. So Sy is hoping to open at least most of the week if not the whole time. Wednesdays to Sundays at best, he proffered.
The wall at Scratch’s space is decorated with an assortment of tableware, framed quirky illustrations, and empty wine and liquor bottles
Mortadella sandwich
To make it feel extra homey, Scratch is also starting to do collaborative popups with chefs and home cookslucky elektra, the last one being with Los Tacos’ chef Keith Curitana. Again, this is so more people who now know good bread via Scratch can learn how other people, chefs and foodies included, like to have theirs.