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| - No major complaints about Scratch, really. I'd give it a 3.5 if Yelp would let me. The main reason I come by here is to pick a bag of 49th Parallel (used to be Intelligentsia) beans as they are the closest supplier to my neighbourhood. That fact alone is a sign that this cafe is paying attention. The space is nice and airy, with lots of individual and arty touches (vintage cigarette machine, weird table art made from recycled records) and shows its former gallery roots quite well. That said, this space is not for me; it feels more like a drop-in center than a cafe, somehow, more community space than cafe. I'm sure some people would like Scratch for that very reason, but I'm seldom tempted to linger.
The other knock against Scratch is I don't get the sense that the baristas know much about their coffee. My espressos have always been okay, but something's missing from the experience. It may seem like an odd criticism, but my espresso is always served to me overfull, like the point of a good is espresso is volume rather than, say, the speed at which the coffee is filling my demi-tasse. An espresso that comes to me as full as I get at Scratch is a warning sign of either over-extraction or an incorrect grind setting.
That said, these are still minor complaints., Scratch is a decent space and I'm happy to have them around.
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