It was back in 2003 that Eric Shelton and wife Ruthie jacked in the long hours in the sweltering heat of the restaurant kitchen for something much cooler. The Bay Area pastry chefs saw a gap in the market and set up on their own with Sketch Ice Cream in Berkeley, craving a return to the simple pleasures of childhood. Sketch has been going from strength to strength ever since, and after the couple took a brief haitus to enjoy the pleasures of their own child’s arrival, Sketch is drawing crowds once again since its reopening in August of last year.

Sketch was named as an example of a pure form of ideas, like Eric and Ruthie’s ice cream there’s nothing unnecessary or unnatural added, and you could say the same about their store. The charm of Sketch is in the simplicity, with wood being the primary material of a very spare, stripped down space – a nice collection of vintage ice cream scoops are about as complicated as things get here. The couple is soon to branch out with the addition of a pantry, furthering their offering of baked goods and items to enhance their customer’s own cooking and baking experiences. We predict a surge in gym membership in the Berkeley area to combat the waistline-expanding effects…

Photography, Shantanu Starick