Denver’s most expensive ice cream sells out in minutes. Here’s why

Most ice cream shops want you to be happy. Sadboy Creamery wants you to eat your feelings on the couch, during a rom-com, maybe after a breakup. “This is ice cream to eat in a dark room after a breakup,” co-owner Austin Walker told the Denver Post. Somehow that pitch has made Sadboy the hardest-to-get dessert in Denver.

Sadboy started selling pints in 2023. Owner and ice cream maker Michael Kimball mixes gelato, custard and ice cream techniques, and his flavors sound like a kid’s dream made by a fancy chef. Cookie Butter Pecan has brown sugar ice cream, brown butter pecans and a cookie butter magic shell. Dirty Earl is Earl Grey ice cream with a splash of amaretto and Oreos. Atlantic Beach Cry is a salted ricotta ice cream with lemon-lime curd and toasted Ritz cracker crust. Kimball’s business partner Adam Yala sums it up as “non-pretentious flavors made pretentiously.” And don’t ask for a cone. Sadboy sells pints, cups, push pops and freezer pops, but no scoops. Kimball says scoop shops keep ice cream too warm and let the flavors mix. “Sadboy is meant to be eaten on your couch, watching a rom-com, in your car,” he said.

Now for the part that might make you a sad boy. A pint costs $16 to $18, which makes it easily Denver’s most expensive ice cream. That’s about twice what you’ll pay at most shops. Kimball doesn’t apologize. “I don’t find the need to justify it,” he told Westword. The shop even sells a $100 titanium and copper Japanese ice cream spoon, one of only seven made. Getting a pint can feel like the Hunger Games. Every Monday at 10 a.m., Sadboy releases limited flavors online. One Monday this summer, more than 1,650 people were waiting on the site at 9:59 a.m., and everything sold out within minutes. If you win, you still have to pick up your pint during a short window. Miss it, and you’re out of luck.

There’s good news for people who keep losing the Monday race. Sadboy’s new shop at 1201 E. Colfax Ave. sells rotating pints in person, no online battle required. With four gelato machines, Kimball hopes to make 1,500 pints a week, about twice what he made in his old 300-square-foot kitchen. Half of those will be sold in the store. You might still wait in line, but at least you’ll be waiting with other Denverites who are happily going broke on ice cream.