Hidden gems in the suburbs: Scratchboard Kitchen serves meals from farm to table

Editor’s note: This story is part of an occasional series focusing on local businesses inducted into the Illinois Made program by the Illinois Office of Tourism.

High quality seasonal food made from scratch sets apart Scratchboard Kitchen at 5 W. Campbell St., in Arlington Heights.

The eatery was among 48 businesses picked in 2023 for the Illinois Made program.

“The Illinois Made program selects a group of our most exemplary hidden gems and one-of-a-kind small businesses and encourages Illinoisans and visitors alike to discover the experiences they offer,” Gov. JB Pritzker said in a news release.

Four years ago, owner Danielle Kuhn moved into the space in downtown Arlington Heights formerly occupied by another restaurant, Passero, which now is located at another downtown spot, 3 S. Evergreen Ave.

Kuhn said she originally looked at opening a restaurant in Chicago but fell in love with downtown Arlington Heights, with its hustle and bustle.

“My goal was to open something that sort of resembles what you find in the city and has that same sort of culinary appeal,” she said.

Kuhn faced some challenges in reaching that goal. She said she reached out to the chamber of commerce, which was helpful in finding spaces, but it would be four years before she learned that Passero owner Matt Peota intended to leave the Campbell Street location.

When she received the keys in January 2020, she didn’t realize on top of the challenges of opening a new restaurant, there would be the additional obstacle of the pandemic.

“We went into lockdown as we were getting ready to open,” she said. “I had thought the hardest part was over at that point. So that was definitely a curveball.”

To aid restaurants during the pandemic, the village came up with the Arlington Alfresco initiative, which allowed Kuhn to seat customers outside.

Now the business, which started by serving breakfast and lunch, is expanding to dinners.

Kuhn, who grew up in Ohio, said she had worked in restaurants before studying marketing and entrepreneurship in college. Her husband, Kevin Kuhn, is from Chicago, which brought her to the area.

Kuhn said she found Executive Chef Grace Goudie through her friendship with Goudie’s sister.

Goudie was classically trained in French cuisine at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa, California.

“My style is very farm driven, focusing on the seasonality and the products that (you) would find on the land,” said Goudie, adding she sources from Illinois, as well as neighboring states such as Wisconsin and Michigan.

The farm-to-table concept, she said, was something she absorbed early in her career in California. Here in Illinois, she is able to apply it in a region that truly has four seasons.

“You truly feel better from the inside out when you’re eating something that was grown on a small farm,” she said.

Specialties include the popular short rib hash, lox on toast with chive cream cheese, capers and egg, and the fried chicken sandwich with a ranch biscuit, pimento cheese and pickled red onions that can be made “dangerously spicy.”

You can tell the difference, she said, with a dish like fried chicken that uses high quality flour and meat.

“You’re going to feel better eating our chicken rather than going to a fast-food restaurant and eating their chicken just because the quality of the products are more superior,” she said.