By Carolina Lopez and Caitlin Kelley
The Canvas building on the northeast corner of Roosevelt and Third streets is being revamped and will house three restaurants, including Scratch French Cafe, opening this winter and offering both sweet and savory menu items on a student-friendly budget.
Norman Fox, real estate agent for Infill Realty Services and owner of the Bliss ReBar property, was approached by the property owners to assist with finding tenants and the redesigning the property redesign, Fox said.
The owners of Scratch Pastries in Scottsdale, Duc Liao and Noelle Liao, were seeking a downtown location and contacted the property owners. The design of their cafe’s interior space was a collaborative effort, Fox said.
“Everything is designed to fit the space,” Fox said.
After years of residing in Paris, the couple decided to leave the city of lights — where Duc worked as a fashion photographer and Noelle as a model — to raise their young children near Noelle’s family in Scottsdale. Reluctant to give up the French lifestyle, Duc learned the art of pastry making at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts and decided to create a French restaurant. Remnants of their time in the fashion industry adorn Scratch Pastries’ walls in the form of photographs taken by Duc. He still jets to Europe for the occasional photography job.
Scratch French Cafe will have a similar atmosphere to its original location in Scottsdale, with clean white walls and Parisian flair in the form of subtle touches of pink and black. The downtown location will don a different name, though: Scratch French Cafe instead of Scratch Pastries.
“It will have similar decorations, but we wanted to respect the building structure,” Noelle said.
The exterior will have shaded waiting areas for the restaurants, 60 bike spaces, valet parking for cars two lots over and 96 trees, Fox said. The landscape architect on the project is Mary Estes of Indigenous Minds.
There are three units in the building. Unit A will house Scratch French Cafe, unit B will be an Italian restaurant with hand-built pizza ovens, and unit C will be a Vietnamese restaurant called Pallet. The interior of every restaurant will have an open kitchen and a bar, Fox said.
“People like to see chefs while working,” he said.
Scratch French Cafe will also have a community table where customers can meet and a separate pastry parlor focused solely on the restaurant’s famous French desserts.
“We wanted to share all of our love of detail into this place. It’s not too conventional but it’s very functional,” Duc said.
The open kitchen will allow customers to see the preparation of the natural ingredients that the Liaos pride themselves on.
“We use only the highest quality ingredients, no substitutes,” Noelle said. “They will be able to see and appreciate that we really do focus on quality more than anything.”
Despite the new name and location, the menu will remain relatively the same. Scratch offers breakfast, lunch and dinner, with such Parisian classics as crepes and croque monsieurs. Sandwiches will range from $8.25 to $9.25 and a salad may be up to $10.
“If there is anything we can do to make it more student-friendly, we will,” Noelle said. “My husband and I are always listening to what people need and want. We change the menu every three months.”
Noelle said they plan to serve more breakfast items and coffee for students to have a pick-me-up before class. They will be opening at 7 a.m. seven days a week and will remain open until 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. The restaurant will be open for dinner every day, with the possible exception of Monday.
“We need family time,” Noelle said, referring to her husband and young children. “They grow up too fast.”
The Liaos are excited for their new location. “We love the downtown feeling,” Noelle said. “It has a much more urban feel, it’s very different from Scottsdale. When we saw this great spot, we called and tried to make it work.”
Kenny Barrett, program manager for the Roosevelt Row Community Development Corporation, said there was a “ripple effect” in the area after RRCDC developed the lot next to the Canvas space. Barrett said “the arts program helps fill in all the gaps between businesses by vacant lot activation.”
“We all believe that Phoenix should be amazing, and yes, we are doing our best everyday to make it happen. Creating more jobs, creating more opportunities, entertaining, feeding, changing the average lifestyle to an international level,” Duc said.
Contact the reporters at carolina.m.lopez@asu.edu and clkelley@asu.edu
