The buttermilk fried chicken at Scratch Cookery in San Jose comes in ascending levels of heat, from a mild house seasoning to a melt-your-head combination of habanero, scorpion, Carolina Reaper and ghost peppers. It seems somehow fitting that the restaurant was born from a fire that leveled the townhouse where owner Connor Vu lived.
“It was the day after the Giants won the World Series in 2014,” Vu told San José Spotlight. “(My wife and I) lost everything in that fire and decided to take a gamble: Instead of refurbishing our house, we bought a food truck.”
Owning a food truck had been on Vu’s mind for a while. At that point, employed as the manager of a women’s retail store, he had no cooking experience outside of backyard barbecues with friends. But his experience at a food truck festival planted the seed.
“The lines were busy and they were taking forever to make food. And it was not even that good,” he said. “I thought, ‘Maybe I can do this.’ But it was on the back burner because the funds weren’t available.”
He began with seafood, offering items such as fish tacos and soft-shell crab BLTs, but the margins were poor and demand was low. He revamped the menu and rebranded the company in 2018. He said when he first tried a flavorful, spicy hot chicken sandwich, he knew it’d be big.
The success of his food truck led Vu to lease a storefront in Fountain Alley in 2020. He survived the pandemic through pop-ups and DoorDash until the grand opening of Scratch Cookery in 2022, when his new restaurant was flooded with loyal customers and their need for heat.
In a process that hasn’t changed since he began, Vu starts by soaking his chicken in a buttermilk brine mixture for three days. The meat is breaded in a lightly spiced batter and fried twice in 375-degree oil — once to cook the chicken, and after a short rest it’s fried again to add a bit more crispiness.
A fried chicken sandwich with Sidewinder fries. Photo by Robert Eliason.
Before being placed on the brioche bun, the chicken is dipped in a mildly spiced hot oil, which keeps everything moist and delicious. Then the heat is applied according to the customer’s orders, chosen from eight levels created from a blend of more than 20 spices.
The finished sandwich comes topped with coleslaw, dill pickle slices and a dollop of mayonnaise and vinegar-based Comeback Sauce. Unlike many fried chicken sandwiches, the meat isn’t entombed in excess breading: The coating is thin and packed with flavor.
The heat options start at Level Zero, with just a dusting of mild seasoning. Vu describes Level One as equal to a Hot Cheeto, with Level Two being “an extra hot Hot Cheeto.” Level Three, he said, is comparable to a raw jalapeño in terms of spice.
“Level Three is my max,” Vu said. “I mean, I’ll eat a four and I’ll be dying. I’ve never tried anything higher than a five, and even with that, I had a tiny bite, and I just couldn’t take it.”
Vu prepares a chicken sandwich, which is topped with coleslaw, dill pickle slices and a dollop of mayonnaise and vinegar-based Comeback Sauce. Photo by Robert Eliason.
Needless to say, Vu suggests new customers start at the low end of the heat scale and work their way up. He said the second and third levels are the most popular, and that Levels Five, Six and Seven are there for the experts, “not for the light-hearted.”
Longtime customer Alex McFarland has been a fan of Scratch Cookery since Vu’s days of doing food truck pop-ups at breweries. He maxes out at Level Three, which he described as “high in chile.”
“I’m not big on spice,” McFarland told San José Spotlight. “It makes me sweat. So I like that you get a big juicy chicken breast and can scale the level. The breading is crispy, and the seasoning is really tasty. There’s a lot of good flavor there.”
Customer Nancy Khuu opted for the smash burger, which she described as ‘the best in the Bay Area.’ Photo by Robert Eliason.
Fellow customer and friend Nancy Khuu opted for the smash burger, which she described as “the best in the Bay Area.” It’s a quarter-pound grass-fed beef patty embedded with grilled onions, cooked to order, then served on a potato bun with American cheese and a tangy housemade “scratch spread.” The same spectrum of hot seasonings featured with the chicken sandwiches can also be added to burgers.
Scratch Cookery’s menu also offers crispy chicken salads, grilled cheese sandwiches and hot tofu sandwiches — brined and battered just like the chicken. Sides include four-cheese macaroni and cheese and Sidewinder fries, sort of a cross between curly fries and potato wedges. Vu also carries a large variety of Original Pattern beers.
“We do our best to keep it simple and make it good,” Vu told San José Spotlight. “We believe in our product and I just genuinely love how people react when they try my food.”
Contact Robert Eliason at [email protected].
Editor’s Note: The Biz Beat is a series highlighting local small businesses and restaurants in Silicon Valley. Know a business you’d like to see featured? Let us know at [email protected].
Scratch Cookery
Located at 30 Fountain Alley #150 in San Jose
(408) 601-0396
Hours:
Sunday-Wednesday 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Thursday-Saturday 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.