Gelato Boy is growing up.
The local chain of scoop shops opened its fifth location — its third in Denver — on May 22 at 4022 Tennyson St.
“Tennyson had been on our radar for at least a couple of years,” said founder Bryce Licht. “It fits the demographic we’re looking for: lots of foot traffic, lots of neighboring businesses that we’re big fans of, restaurants, bars, coffee shops. It has a really good neighborhood feel to it.”
The 1,200-square-foot store took three months to renovate. Licht and his wife Giulia signed a lease in late February and started the buildout in mid-March.
The pair met in Venice, Italy, when Licht was working abroad. After marrying, Licht and his wife returned to Colorado and opened their first scoop shop on Boulder’s Pearl Street Mall in 2014. The pair named the store Gelato Boy because Bryce had been nicknamed that in Italy, due to how often he discussed his dream to open up a gelato shop.
There are already two ice cream shops on Tennyson Street, but Licht isn’t concerned about competition.
“We have shops on The Pearl Street Mall in Boulder where in the summer there are 10 to12 options for frozen treats. Yet all of us do well,” he said in an email. “I think it comes down to offering customers more than one to two options in a given area. Gelato is very different from ice cream, so we feel like we are adding a unique option to the neighborhood.”
There are big differences between ice cream and gelato, Licht said. Ice cream is mostly cream with a little bit of milk, while gelato is the opposite.
“Gelato is going to be a bit healthier than ice cream because it has less fat, and you don’t need as much sugar to cut into that dairy fat taste,” Licht said. “It also means that it’s more dense, so there’s less air whipped into gelato than there is ice cream. That makes the flavors more pronounced, too, so more flavor in every bite.
“Since there’s not so much butter fat from all the cream, the flavors are more intense, it’s not covered up by all the fat. Coffee is going to taste more like coffee. Pistachio is going to taste more like pistachio.”
The shop charges $6.35 for a small gelato, up to $9.75 for a large. Other options include milkshakes, cookie sandwiches, affogato (gelato and espresso) and brownie or waffle a la mode.
Most of Gelato Boy’s locations offer 18 flavors with two limited-time flavors shuffled in and out. One of their most recent limited-time flavors was Hot Honey and Biscuits. Gelato Boy’s most popular scoop flavor is Gooey Butter Cake and Caramel. The most popular pint flavor is Salty Cookies and Cream. Pints are also sold in stores nationwide.
