Let’s be honest, we all love spooning. And we all love cookies and what they are made of. But when it happens that all this share a name, we can get really excited and a bit confused. The communication and design agency, Zentralnorden, took a child-like inspirational approach for the creation of the first SPOONING Cookie Dough Bar, which is located in Berlin’s family-friendly Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood. For this, the first shop of the growing food brand – and the first cookie dough bar in the whole of Germany – the designers wanted to evoke the fun, carefree memories which many associate with childhood, in other words “nibbling raw cookie dough in mom’s kitchen.”

Since cookie dough as a form of fast food dessert is something new and unknown to the German customers and the Berlin food scenery, the store concept also needed to be super fresh and surprising. The store needed to be inviting and bright to pull customers inside. In this version of the sweet memory, “mom’s kitchen” is painted a bright bubblegum pink and the only thing on the menu is cookie dough and- lots of it! There’s a reason that the company’s catchphrase (and a pretty good hashtag) is “FORGET YOUR DIET” seen in the blue neon sign exhibited like a playful art installation on one of the walls of this 22 sqm shop, with an additional kitchen space of 20 sqm in the back.

Simple, white tiles in the front of the shop juxtapose the color-burst of pink, while dark blue, coated steel barstools add a grounding effect as they line up against the half-pink, half-blue painted bar running along the one wall. As designer of the project, Jeannette Riedel, told us the colour scheme was inspired by the colours of the typical Miami colour palettes; this choice was very intuitive and made by heart, also the final decision on the actual shade of pink was more a subjective choice.

The two walls facing either side of the bar bear tongue-in-cheek reminders that smiles are the only obligatory thing that customers must bring in with them while in the process of selecting (and eating) the sweet, uncooked mixture. The one wall features an interesting lineup of shuttlecocks while the other wall sees a menu board with changeable hand-stamped letters on plywood.

The latter lists instructions on how to eat the cookie dough and reminds patrons, once again, to “forget their diets,” a concept that seems to be a prerequisite to any fun times to be had down this real-time “memory lane.” Designers wanted to step back from the most expected things like baking accessories, thinking that it all should be with a little twist. The wall with the shuttlecocks as an example, was a quick and fun idea as something that is some kind of childhood memory: playing badminton in your grandma´s garden… as well as tasting cookie dough in her kitchen. A lot of other details in the shop are very functional and flexible in their daily use.

Spooning offers incredibly delicious raw cookie dough that is served like ice cream. It is 100% safe to eat because there are no eggs and baking soda in it. It comes in different flavours some of them are vegan. For the store concept Zentralnorden wanted to come up with something fresh and surprising. “It all started when I was still pregnant with my twins and wanted to bake cookies for friends.

Because of the pregnancy, I was not allowed, as always, to munch on the dough because there were raw eggs in the dough. But if I leave out the eggs, then I would have to be able to easily nibble the dough, I thought. Maybe it was the hormones, but you can not imagine what happens when a twins pregnant woman wants to snack on biscuit …” says Spooning founder and passionate Nutella lover, Diana. Ten flavors of cookie dough and a mouthwatering selection of toppings – from sprinkles to gummy candy and chocolate, and everything in between that can put a smile on one’s mouth – is displayed under a glass-topped, white tile covered freestanding bar in the very center of the store. The gooey dough is the main attraction, after all!