Lawless, a multiple-time James Beard Foundation Award semifinalist for Outstanding Baker, will open the new bakery next to her full-scale restaurant The Lakewood. According to Lawless, it was too good of an opportunity to pass up.
“The space allows for it; we have this wholesale production bakery in the back and it seemed silly not to have a retail front. It’s a perfect little space,” she tells The News & Observer.
The move will allow Scratch to get back to its roots, as in recent years its Durham location had become more focused on the café side of the business by specializing in coffee and lunch. Now, the new Lakewood location (dubbed “Baby Scratch” by Lawless) can focus more on the baked goods, such as pies and bread, that made the bakery famous.
“This will return a little more to our roots. We’ll have a lot more bread. We’ve built a bread program we’re pretty proud of,” Lawless says.
