Scratch Kitchen Expands Catering Business with New Commercial Kitchen in Hatfield

Tony Di Domizio | North Penn Now•

Scratch Kitchen in Lansdale is expanding its business to the Hatfield area, bringing more production space to their new kitchen at 8 Cherry Street.

"We outgrew the space we were in and wanted to expand but stay in Montgomery County. Honestly, there aren’t many commercial kitchen spaces available outside of restaurants/cafes,” said Scratch Kitchen co-owner Jenna Fry. "We transformed the building we are in to a commercial kitchen.”

Jenna said the new expansion will allow Scratch Kitchen to take on more business with new production space.

"Customers now have the option to pick up their catering trays free of charge,” Jenna said.

Scratch Kitchen began its roots as Frys’ Catering in 2016, run by newlyweds Kyle and Jenna Fry. Kyle, 38, got his start working at a pizza shop in Lancaster County in high school, before moving on to work in busy restaurants in West Chester and later working for a corporate catering company where he managed the large kitchens at Harleysville Insurance and Penn State Abington. Jenna, 38, who was a catering manager for Aramark at West Chester University, left her corporate catering job in 2018, and went full-time with Scratch Kitchen after having their son, Ayden.

"I’ve always been intrigued/inspired by entrepreneurs, so I found myself working for small businesses. I worked/opened various restaurants in West Chester, working as a waitress and in the kitchen,” Jenna said. "I moved to Philadelphia and went on to work for the dietitian of the Phillies for a few years, and eventually worked as a manager for the same corporate catering company Kyle worked for.”

At present, Scratch Kitchen serves Montgomery and Bucks counties, providing general catering with food completely made from scratch — hence the name.

"We offer various unique options, some items that set us apart are our ‘themed bars’ that include our taco bar, slider bar, pasta bar, ramen bar and mashed potato bar,” Jenna said.

Scratch Kitchen also found a huge success with its food truck, especially through Covid.

"Back in 2017, we were looking to expand our services outside of catering. We started to offer ‘pop ups’ at local businesses, like wineries, breweries, and distilleries, where we would sell our food directly to the public,” Jenna said. "We partnered with Boardroom Spirits for a period of time and would provide food for their customers Thursday to Sunday. We decided to purchase the food truck in 2019 so we could legitimize our business and expand to different locations.”

When Covid hit in 2020, catering was nonexistent, she said. People were not gathering, and no one was interested in catering.

"We had to pivot and think out of the box to keep our business going and provide for our family, as we had our second child in December 2019. We started to go to neighborhoods and offer local families a safe option for food. That was our first exposure to the public, and people remembered our food,” she said. "Once things got back to normal, a lot of our previous customers reached out to us for private events, corporate events and celebrations.”

Since then, Scratch Kitchen has popped up at Warwick Farm Brewing, Bishop Estate Winery, Ten7, Well Crafted in Ambler, and participates in Lansdale First Fridays and Souderton Third Fridays.

"We go to a lot of schools and offer lunch to the faculty and staff: Pennbrook, Penndale, Kulp Elementary, Vernfield Elementary, and Wissahickon, to name a few,” she said.

Fry said Kyle and she, along with full-time employee Samantha Custodia, love to give back to the local community.

"Last year at Christmas, we brought our food truck to the Laurel House and donated a meal to the people staying at the shelter and the staff.,” Jenna said. "Throughout the year, we participate in numerous fundraisers, many for schools but we’ve worked with a local organizations, like Spreading Hope and Smiles and Keegan’s Touch-a-truck.”

Scratch Kitchen is currently seeking employees for its catering department and food truck. Check them out on their website, on Facebook, and on Instagram.