Monday morning, 9:56 a.m., a text hits your inbox: “Sadboy Creamery is dropping!” You swiftly click the link that takes you to the ice cream shop’s digital storefront and wait for 10 a.m. to strike, when this week’s drop will officially be released.
10 a.m.! Three flavors appear on the previously hidden screen, and you scramble to click on the first one you see in hopes that you were fast enough to snag a pint. “Adding to Cart,” the button reads as the tiny loading circle spins for what seems like an inordinate amount of time. “Not added to cart,” a pop-up reads, “This item is in very high demand, try again to see if you can get it.” You try again, “Add to Cart,” and again, and again, only to eventually surrender and close out of the screen. You’ll try again next week.
That’s the Monday morning song and dance sad boys and girls know all too well when trying to get their hands on Denver’s most coveted ice cream.
“The real trick, I think, is trying to add it at like 10:05,” said owner of Sadboy Creamery, Michael Kimball. “That’s when the carts time out, so it throws [the ice cream] back into inventory. And a lot of people will not follow through with the purchase.”
Saddies Rejoice: The Pint Shop is Open
Sadboy Creamery first hit the scene in 2023 as an exclusively online business (@SadboyCreamery on Instagram), and quickly gained popularity due to its premium quality and nostalgic flavors like Cookie Circus (featuring Circus Animal cookies and rainbow sprinkles in a birthday cake batter base) and Cosmic Frownie Batter (inspired by Little Debbie’s Cosmic Brownies with fudgy brownie batter and rainbow chips swirled inside vanilla bean ice cream).
Followers – or, “Saddies,” as Kimball affectionately refers to them – eat with their eyes first as beautiful photographs of meticulously made frozen treats fill their feeds with the week’s upcoming flavors.
While the mad dash to the digital checkout line feels like a rite of passage, Saddies finally have a reason to turn their frowns upside down because the viral ice cream sensation opened its long-awaited brick-and-mortar shop on Saturday, September 19, off East Colfax and Marion Street. According to Kimball, a crowd of more than 500 people showed up on its first day, with a line that wrapped around the block.
“People got here right at 10 a.m., and we opened at noon, so they were here two hours early,” Kimball recalled.
However, don’t expect to find scoops, ice cream cones, sundaes and the like at the new storefront. Sadboy Creamery only offers individually packaged items like pints and cups (available in 12 rotating flavors), as well as push-pops. There is also merch like hats, shirts, and coolers.
“At a scoop shop, you have to hold [the ice cream] at a higher temperature, so it’s more vulnerable, and it gets icy. There’s also flavor contamination. That mint chip ice cream is going to make whatever is next to it – the vanilla, the orange creamsicle – taste like mint, and that’s my biggest pet peeve,” he shared. “The intention was never to create a scoop shop. Sadboy is meant to be eaten on your couch, watching a rom-com, in your car.”
Before the new location, Sadboy was operating out of a small commercial kitchen occupying less than 300 square-feet off of Federal Boulevard. There he only had two gelato machines to churn out between 700 to 800 pints per week. At the new storefront, Kimball now has four gelato machines, with the goal of producing 1,500 pints per week. Around half of those will be offered in-store and the rest online as special drops.
By the end of the year, he hopes to add two more gelato machines for a total of six.
“We’re thinking that we can quickly double what we’re making and then go from there,” he added.
Sadboy Creamery: Making a Premium Product
There has been speculation that the scarcity of Sadboy’s ice cream is artificial, but Kimball says that would be bad business.
“The reason we sell out is because it’s labor-intensive and we’re making such small batches. We make all the mix-ins, we make everything,” he explained. “That’s why we sell out so fast. It’s not because we’re trying to make it hard to get. It’s just we’re making as much as we can.”
Patrons pay a premium for all that hard work. Pints start at $16 and can go up to $18 for higher-end flavors like the signature Teary-misu. According to Kimball they are getting more bang for their buck than they would from a run-of-the-mill grocery store pint.
“Most pints at the grocery store would weigh less than 300 grams [because] a lot of the cheaper brands have close to 50% air,” he explained. “If you were to weigh our pints, we shoot for around 500 grams, some of them are more, and we pack them full. Oftentimes, the lid is having a hard time staying on.”
Kimball uses a blend of ice cream, gelato, and custard-making techniques in his proprietary ice cream recipe, which makes for a denser, creamier end product. He also makes all his mix-ins in-house, like juicing 40 pounds of key limes by hand for the Key Lime Cry, or slow roasting ripe bananas to caramelize them before they are churned into the Black Bottom Banana Bread’s ice cream base and baked into the gooey banana bread blondies studded throughout.
“If you were to buy at a scoop shop, you bought a four-ounce scoop for $8, multiply that by four, that’s a $32 pint,” he continued. “So, this pint is a way better deal, and a pretty good value for something that was handmade.”
Pints with a Purpose
Underneath the brand’s sold out drops and whimsical flavors lies a deeper message.
“I identify as a sad boy,” Kimball earnestly shared. “I think that it’s important to talk about mental health, and ice cream is going to make you feel better.”
In line with that sentiment, every year, Sadboy hosts a New Year’s Eve fundraiser with 100% of the proceeds donated to The Trevor Project, a nonprofit focused on suicide prevention for LGBTQ+ youth.
“We do our fundraiser on New Year’s Eve because that’s the day that most people commit suicide,” he said. For him, the fundraiser opens an important mental health conversation up so that people know they can talk about it and they’re not alone.
“When you’re eating ice cream, you’re thinking about good times,” he added. “It’s very nostalgic for a lot of people, and that’s why the flavors lean nostalgic. It’s all connected and intentional.”
Sadboy Creamery is open Thursday and Friday from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., and Saturday from noon to 8 p.m. Follow @SadboyCreamery on Instagram to try and get your hands on the next exclusive flavor drop on Mondays at 10 a.m. 1201 E. Colfax Ave., #101, Denver, sadboycreamery.com
