Scratch Kitchen & Taproom
Tim & Teresa's Dinner Adventures
By Teresa Flanagan
Not sure why our dinner adventures always seem to start with us travelling and hungry, but that does seem to be the case. This time we were heading back from Cary, we took an exit for a restaurant found on Google, drove fifteen minutes and we arrived at N. Salem Street in Apex North Carolina. What we saw was a pleasant street with all kinds of shoppes and eateries on both sides of the street. It was clean, the people friendly, and a short walk down the block brought us to the Scratch Kitchen & Taproom inside the Tabacco & Mule Exchange.
We started our meal off with soda and a sweet tea! I ordered the Buffalo Cauliflower Bites. They were lightly battered and perfectly sauced, making each bite feel almost luxurious. I’m not usually a fan of ranch dressing, but I decided to give theirs a try, and I was surprised to discover that I loved it! The fact that it’s homemade makes all the difference. It was honestly better than any ranch dressing I’ve ever tasted! Along with the cauliflower, I ordered their Crab Cake appetizer as my meal. Their crab cakes are absolutely delicious and, best of all, they have more crab than filler! Each crab cake is served on a fried green tomato with an okra and corn relish that I could happily eat all by itself. So much flavor packed into one dish!
Tim ordered the Bibimbap Bowl, which features seared rice topped with shaved and marinated ribeye steak, fresh spinach, carrots, grilled green onions, pickled red onions, cucumbers, and an over-easy egg, all served with their spicy bib sauce. We were both surprised by this dish because eating it felt like a little treasure hunt! You keep digging through all those delicious layers until you finally reach the rice at the bottom, where it has been soaking up all the wonderful flavors from the marinated steak, vegetables, egg, and homemade sauce. That sauce is hard to describe, it reminded us a little of barbecue sauce, but it definitely isn’t barbecue sauce. Whatever it is, it’s delicious! Of course, we couldn’t leave without dessert. We shared their Ube Cheesecake, which is also made from scratch right there in the kitchen. It was truly delicious, served with a blueberry sauce and a crust that was especially good, with just a hint of coconut.
Now for the service!
Our server was friendly, helpful, and attentive throughout our meal. She did a wonderful job describing the dishes and making sure our drinks were refilled. And she even remembered that we had a long drive home and asked if we needed to-go cups. Those little details really stood out to us. Even the bathroom was a treat, it was spotlessly clean, which is a huge win. Then upon entering, the unisex bathroom seat was up, and written on the bottom of the toilet seat was the words “Put Me Down”, and after about five minutes of insulting and putting the toilet seat down, I walked away enjoying their message and sense of humor. All in all, Scratch Kitchen & Taproom turned our long drive home into a very enjoyable meal out. We came hungry, discovered a new town, tried some wonderfully creative food, and left very happy, and very full!
