When we opened our doors in 2002 we pretty much were the only artisanal gelato or ice cream around – and that’s changed! One of our first competitors was Sketch Ice Cream who opened up in the Berkeley 4th Street district a couple years later. When we heard, we charged down ready to sling some Stracciatella at them (we love a good fight – just ask Gelato Milano). But we were delighted to meet the cute couple that Eric and Ruthie are, just like a lot of other folks who became fans – and we were sad when they decided to retire Sketch last year.
We keep in touch and recently thought it would be fun to revive Sketch at Naia Berkeley. We focus on gelato, and admittedly our goodies bin is a little bare. Eric and Ruthie are superb pastry chefs and we always enjoyed their tasty accompaniments like the Cioccalat Budino, and the Olive Oil cake. Both Gelateria Naia and Sketch Ice Cream are purists in their own way, so we get along well – and Eric and Ruthie said YES, they’d have fun rolling Sketch out at our store!
Naia will be offering a rotating list of goodies that go great with gelato at our Berkeley location – including the Budino and Olive Oil cake – as well as some great sauces! Later we will also be celebrating Sketch’s ice cream with some gelato renditions of some old favorites.