THUNDER BAY — Timothy Sherlock is a 17-year-old entrepreneur that is making a mark on the pop-up food, ice cream scene. Sherlock is the owner and lead crafter for his company Cold Slate Creamery and creates a unique rolled ice cream on-the-spot for his customers. Along with his three signature flavours — Dutch chocolate, French vanilla and strawberry cream — he also creates a variety of constantly changing specialty flavours for his rolled ice cream treats that he calls, “happiness made before your eyes.”
“What makes this business unique is that I make every ice cream right before the customer, so this is a mobile business,” said Sherlock. “Every ice cream is crafted on my mobile cold-plate, instant-freeze crafting station right in front of the customer so they can see their ice cream made. They know it’s not sitting in some sort of freezer. I can engage the customer, I tell stories while I’m making their order and I absolutely love the customer interaction.”
Sherlock, who is a home-schooled Grade 11 student, is far from being alone in the development of his business and says “he couldn’t do this without” his sister Abigail, who is a college business student and his 12-year-old brother who looks after the cash for him. He says he and his siblings have developed a strong work ethic that started with being newspaper carriers.
“Ever since I was probably eight years old I’ve done a carrier route for The Chronicle Journal. My siblings and I have been delivering the paper since 2013 — and we’re still doing it,” he said. “My dad works two full-time jobs, 80 hours a week, but he leaves his work early to help me. I’ve got two giant trailers and we treat our van like a truck and move all this stuff here. They are all such an incredible support and I just want to absolutely sing their praises — they have the best.”
The business got a boost from the Community Economic Development Commission (CEDC) through the Summer Company program.
Ryan Moore, a development officer with the CEDC says the program is designed for high school and post-secondary students who instead of getting a job somewhere have decided to start their own business.
“We provide them a small amount of funding as well as training and mentoring to help them build a successful business so that they, hopefully, can make some money before they go back to school,” said Moore.
For Sherlock, the Summer Company program was the right fit.
“I wanted to start a business and this (funding program) is something I looked into and am really excited about. I love the idea of making my ice cream right before the customer, making it fresh and engaging the customer. This is something that I’m really passionate about,” said Sherlock. “I’ve worked very hard to make my ice cream taste great. I use all fresh milk and cream and I do a little bit of heavy cream powder, heavy milk powder, give it that extra touch, but it’s all small batch made and it’s all made right before the customer.”
Fans of the rolled ice cream treat can find Sherlock at most festivals taking place in the community throughout the season. He will be at every Magnus Theatre outdoor performance and at the Live at the Waterfront events each Wednesday evening. He will also be at the BrewHa Craft Beer Festival at Prince Arthur’s Landing in September and the WineOh! Wine Cider and Spirits Summer Festival on Aug. 13. Sherlock will also be at the Westfort Street Fair and the Chippewa Family Festival and will throw in a wedding on his busy schedule as well.
Visit aspectontario.com/coldslatecreamery for more information on booking an event or to view the vending location schedule.
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