coming soon apparently

Scratchbread Is Coming Back — Maybe?

The original location. Photo: Dave Ratzlow

People loved Scratchbread: The Bed-Stuy bakery became a cult favorite during its six-year run, when it operated as an inconspicuous takeout window that was, really, the outlet for one of Brooklyn’s most ambitious, obsessive bakers, Matthew Tilden. The pizza breads, grits, and bourbon wheat were obsessed over — in 2012, then Village Voice critic Tejal Rao called the bakery one of New York’s ten best — until Tilden closed up shop in 2015, writing in his bakery’s newsletter that he’d “used up every single drip of passion I had.”

The closing was greeted grimly and the bakery’s many fans were vocally bummed. Six months after, Edible Brooklyn wrote that people were still tweeting “near daily” about the closing. It’s been four years almost to the day since the closing and it appears that, like a sourdough starter named Lazarus rising from dormancy, Scatchbread may return? On social media, Tilden has cryptically and quietly indicated he’s opening a new business called Scratchbread.counter, though details appear classified.

When Grub reached out to Tilden this morning, he declined to comment and wrote that he couldn’t say anything yet. So, is this for real? All signs indicate so. He’s been dropping hints on Instagram, as one person put it to Grub, but more concretely has a new Instagram for Scratchbread.counter, described as “the next level, grown up, counter bar.” There will be takeout, grits, sandwiches, and pizza, apparently, but also wine and beer — two things not offered at the original.

Where will it be? Well, somewhere. (The address listed on Scratchbread’s Facebook is that of the original location.) On September 30, Tilden posted a photo to Scratchbread’s Facebook and Instagram pages of what appears to be a new location with a walk-up window and more. In response to the many enthusiast comments, Tilden wrote that he can’t say more but asks people to follow the new Instagram page. Is this happening for real? Well, it’s all but been confirmed.

Scratchbread Is Coming Back — Maybe?