{"id":827759,"date":"2026-05-28T12:27:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T12:27:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/827759\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T12:27:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T12:27:24","slug":"bakery-in-vintage-house-feels-like-home-to-owners-and-alta-vista-neighborhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/827759\/","title":{"rendered":"Bakery in vintage house feels like home to owners and Alta Vista neighborhood"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the garden of a sunny yellow Victorian, blooms on lush Esperanza plants match the century-old dwelling that\u2019s home to a neighborhood bakery \u2014\u00a0and the baker herself.<\/p>\n

Edinburg transplants Becky Medellin and her husband Jack Salmon opened Scratch Kitchen<\/a> in 2017 at the corner of West Russell Place and San Pedro Avenue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They make everything from, well, scratch. The same could be said for their small cafe in the Alta Vista neighborhood.<\/p>\n

Just blocks from their first home together, a unique property caught the couples\u2019 eye while out on a walk, and now has their business and hearts, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t sure how we wanted to do it,\u201d Medellin said of the idea to move their bakery from their hometown to San Antonio. \u201cWe didn\u2019t know if we wanted to find a spot to rent or purchase a building, and so it kind of just fell into our lap.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the house needed some renovation and reworking.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Scratch Kitchen\u2019s Becky Medellin talks about Scratch Kitchen and her decision to operate the storefront out of the historic Victorian home in the Alta Vista neighborhood on May 19, 2026. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

Adaptive reuse of historic structures for food and beverage is common around the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In San Antonio, Hixon Properties turned a former Cadillac auto dealership building into the Make Ready Market<\/a> and Tia\u2019s Taco Hut operates from an old filling station on North St. Mary\u2019s Street.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Liberty Bar is located in an 1883 King William neighborhood mansion also once used as a Benedictine convent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Scratch, Medellin and Salmon renovated the space where a hair salon had operated previously, removing the sink stations and installing a bold floral wallpaper mural and an antique chandelier they discovered in a crawl space.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The vintage portrait of an unknown woman also found stashed away was reframed and hung on the wall and a discarded door transformed into a long table. They rebuilt and painted crumbling window rails.<\/p>\n

\"\"A framed portrait of an unknown woman hangs in the dining area of Scratch Kitchen. The portrait is showcased near an antique chandelier which were both found when renovating the home. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

Cupcakes, bread, rolls<\/p>\n

For the first few years, Scratch Kitchen baked everything in a tight kitchen they built for the 800-square-foot eatery.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As demand grew, they then added a lunch service to their menu of Hummingbird cupcakes, frosted cinnamon rolls, raspberry danish, Nutella bread and their popular lemon pistachio bars.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just had crowds coming for lunch, and eventually started asking about catering,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Alta Vista resident and neighborhood association board member Elizabeth Allen visits Scratch often. \u201cIt\u2019s perfect walking distance, and it\u2019s such a sweet and incredibly individual place,\u201d she said. And she appreciates the remodeled space.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that thoughtful adaptive reuse of our older buildings really keeps the neighborhood vibrant and attractive for the people who\u2019ve always lived here as well as the people who move in,\u201d Allen said.<\/p>\n

On a recent morning, mom-friends Tempie Mena and Jennifer Edmonds-Jones stopped in for a bite after dropping their children off for a horticulture micro-school lesson nearby. They both ordered breakfast sandwiches which are served all day.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so cute,\u201d Mena said. \u201cI told [Jennifer] I\u2019m going to take lots of pictures of her in front of the wallpaper.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"The pastry and bakery window at Scratch Kitchen that is stationed out of a historic Victorian home in the Alta Vista neighborhood. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

The house-turned-restaurant is still a work in progress, Medellin said. \u201cMy husband told me to be patient, we\u2019re gonna get there. We\u2019ve been here 10 years, and it just takes so much time to do it correctly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The restaurant\u2019s wholesale orders increased during the pandemic. In 2020, they began leasing a production kitchen on the East Side, then in 2024 opened their own at 612 E. Hackberry. <\/p>\n

The kitchen supplies both the tiny cafe and dozens of other spots, including places like Press Coffee, King William Coffee House, Nowhere Bookshop and The Honeybean Coffee & Tea.<\/p>\n

Scratch bakers also make 1,400 kolaches a week there, using sausage from Opa\u2019s Smoked Meats<\/a> of Fredericksburg.<\/p>\n

The Scratch menu is made up of mostly recipes from Medellin\u2019s parents, while some are her own and also that of her baking team, whom she praised.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to me they find joy and meaning in their work, because for me it is really meaningful to be able to serve food to so many people, and to have people come together over food in our restaurants,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Expansion at their current address, which has some seating both inside and out, isn\u2019t in the cards.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Original construction elements are seen along the floors and walls of the historic Victorian home that houses the Scratch Kitchen storefront and dining areas. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

\u201cWe played with the idea of expanding the restaurant and doing another concept upstairs, but I think we\u2019ve settled on the idea that we\u2019d like to stay and live up there,\u201d Medellin said. \u201cThis is the only house our kids have lived in, and it\u2019s sentimental for us.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do love the neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n

The family enjoys the walkability of Alta Vista and being able to walk to the library, the children\u2019s school, restaurants, parks and a swimming pool, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy 8-year-old, she always goes, \u2018we have everything we need,\u2019\u201d Medellin said. Including a cafe just down the stairs, of course.<\/p>\n

Medellin has no plans to add more locations of Scratch in other parts of town, except for a take-out service at the Hackberry location in the next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe like having the unique setting, the old house,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the garden of a sunny yellow Victorian, blooms on lush Esperanza plants match the century-old dwelling that\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":827760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5133],"tags":[123709,5229,30658,339878,82912,311678,339879,7084,8463,7202,7203,339880,358,7453,3187,7593,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-827759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-alta-vista","tag-america","tag-bakery","tag-becky-medellin","tag-culinary","tag-historic-homes","tag-jack-salmon","tag-preservation","tag-restaurant","tag-san-antonio","tag-sanantonio","tag-scratch-kitchen-and-bakery","tag-texas","tag-top-story","tag-tx","tag-typefeature","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116652203460221770","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=827759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/827760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=827759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=827759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=827759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}