.Uncommon flavors scooped at Bad Walter’s

Sydney Arkin loves ice cream. When the pandemic hit, most household shoppers stampeded through the aisles of grocery stores to stock up on sacks of flour and bulky packages of toilet paper. Arkin bought 13 pints of ice cream. As the weeks of sequestering continued, she bucked the trend of baking loaves of sourdough and banana bread in favor of learning how to make ice cream. She worried there could be a breakdown in ice cream supply chains.

A friend of Arkin’s lent her a Cuisinart Ice 30, which works by freezing the bowl for 24 hours. “I knew immediately that I enjoyed it,” she said. “And also if I had to freeze the bowl every time I wanted to make something, I was never going to do it.” Arkin decided to invest in a Cuisinart Ice 100, which has a built-in compressor.

Initially, she found ice cream recipes online, but after that Arkin bought “every single ice cream cookbook that existed.” She studied the history of ice cream making and the science that explained fat ratios and sugar content. Arkin subsequently decided to start selling batches of homemade ice cream after she made a celebratory ice cream cake for some friends. One of the attendees, Marc Schechter, had co-founded Square Pie Guys. He encouraged her to start a pop-up. “He’s completely self-taught,” Arkin said. “I was like, well, if he can do it then maybe I can, too.”

She started her business the following week, at the end of October 2020. By that December sales reached as many as 100 pints a week—a self-described “bootleg” business operating out of her living room. “By the time we got shut down in May 2021, I knew this was what I wanted to be doing for the foreseeable future,” she said. After starting up again at a commercial kitchen, Arkin began the process of looking for a brick-and-mortar space, which continued until she signed the lease in Rockridge a year ago in June.

Arkin said of her store locale, formerly home to a Smitten Ice Cream shop, “This is the absolute dream location.” When I stopped by to try a scoop of Bad Walter’s Greyhound Sorbet, Arkin’s perfectionism kicked in. She was apologetic because she thought the batch was too sweet, that the grapefruit flavor wasn’t as strong as it should be. She needn’t have worried. It was smooth, tart and a lovely shade of light pink. Quite grapefruity enough to qualify as a palate cleanser. I’d have mistaken it for gelato if it hadn’t been labeled sorbet.

“I’m never satisfied with anything [I make],” Arkin said. “But if you’ve ever made ice cream from scratch, for the most part, no matter how basic a recipe, it’s going to taste better than what you can buy in a store.” Grocery store ice cream has a very long shelf life due to fillers and chemicals. “But when you’re making it with fresh ingredients and eating it right out of the ice cream machine, nothing tastes better than that,” she said.

Before she started Bad Walter’s, Arkin kept different types of sprinkles and toppings in her pantry to make her own unique sundaes. When she decided to sell her ice cream, Arkin was determined to create uncommon flavors that not only satisfied her tastes but that would also be unlike anything else in the grocery store. The names of her flavors are reflective of her previous career in advertising. She also doesn’t shy away from maximalism.

Slumber Party is a Ritz Cracker frozen custard chock full of Reese’s Pieces, Nutter Butter cookies and fudge swirls. Chocolate Bad-Ino contains chocolate-covered potato chips and marshmallow fluff swirled inside a dark chocolate base. Arkin grew up eating Fruit Loops for dinner. “I’m used to weird, sugary things. I find that really fun,” she said, adding, “There’s so much other good ice cream in Oakland. If people just want pistachio they have lots of options, but there’s not a lot of options for stuff like this.”

Bad Walter’s Bootleg Ice Cream; open Wed-Sun noon to 9:30pm, Fri-Sat noon to 10pm. 5800 College Ave., Oakland. IG:@badwalters. badwalters.com