It’s Cool. It’s Chill. It’s an Ice Cream Factory

It’s cool. It’s chill. It’s the most interesting ice cream parlor I’ve ever come across. It’s the Little Man Ice Cream Factory near Sloans Lake, on West Colfax Avenue and Tennyson Street in Denver. Not only can you order fresh ice cream made daily, but you can actually watch it being made.
The store features building block flavor menus and an array of fascinating equipment, such as a conveyor belt on the ceiling with shiny buckets hanging from hooks. There is a curved, waxed wooden slide from the second floor down to the first that children love and a spotless kitchen that features a double door oven. I just read that sentence again and did not mean to imply that the children were sliding into the oven, like some gruesome Hansel and Gretel scenario. The slide and the kitchen are in two distinct parts of the building. I asked the store manager, Joe, “Why do you have an oven in an ice cream factory?”
He said that some of their flavors feature ingredients that must be heated, like caramel and crunchy bits or baked goods like chocolate brownies. They make it all from scratch in that kitchen. He drew my attention to a sizeable hole in the counter that was covered by two thick cutting boards. Joe told me that a few times a year, they make candy there that goes into some seasonal flavors.
On any given day, Little Man offers a dozen or more flavors. In the past, I’ve always ordered the 16th St. Chocolate, but today I had the Pistachio Orange Blossom. It was an appetizing yellow-green color and I tasted the delicious notes of both pistachio and orange in a delightful creamy texture that you won’t find in any store-bought frozen treats.
Joe said that they were in the process of setting elaborate decorations for Christmas. For the present time, the Halloween décor featured characters from Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas, which allowed his decorating team to begin placing some Yuletide displays. He invited me to come back, promising an incredible display. He said it would be completed by Black Friday.
He won’t have to invite me twice.