Where to Find Denver’s Best Ice Cream

Yes, you could huddle on your couch with a spoon and pint while binge-watching your favorite series, but we say summer is the time to practice your extrovert skills with a teetering cone or loaded sundae in hand.

That’s because ice cream is a social venture at heart. Chatting with your local scooper about the array of flavors on display—and asking for samples—is part of the ritual, as is hanging out with your neighbors in sunny shops and patios to enjoy the contrast of warm sun and chilly dessert.

The Front Range offers both classic shops that have been serving their communities for decades and newer arrivals churning up creative blends. Here, the 17 best places to indulge, with many dairy-free, vegan, and gluten-free options so no one is left out of the warm-weather fun.

Central Denver
North Denver Metro Area
South Denver Metro Area
East Denver Metro Area
West Denver Metro Area
Multiple Denver Locations

Central Denver

Bonnie Brae Ice Cream

Bonnie Brae’s Cappuccino Crunch. Photo by Rachel Adams

Address: 799 S. University Blvd., Denver (Washington Park)
Our favorite flavor: Old-school flavors like rocky road are best at OG ice cream shops.

You might have to battle a crowd for your scoop of Cappuccino Crunch or Amaretto Peach, but that’s just part of the charm of this always-busy Wash Park shop, where a line forms out the door on all but the most frigid of days. Other than a COVID-induced hiatus, the longtime parlor has been scooping steadily since 1986, earning fans that span generations and neighborhoods. With so many changes to the Bonnie Brae neighborhood in recent years, it’s heartwarming to see that this ice cream shop is still drawing crowds.

Liks Ice Cream

Address: 2039 E. 13th Ave., Denver (Cheesman Park); 10903 U.S. 285, Conifer
Our favorite flavor: The apple pie variety adds to the all-American experience.

Liks (est. 1976) counts among the Mile High City’s oldest ice cream shops, and its vintage sign and red-brick exterior offer a comforting dose of nostalgia to Cheesman Park neighbors and the flock of folks coming from farther afield. A seat on the shady patio with a double-scoop cone (chocolate-dipped, for us) is what summer dreams are made of. Classic ice-cream-based treats—shakes, malts, floats, and sundaes—make the experience even more memorable. (As of 2014, those returning to the city via U.S. 285 from mountain adventures can replenish spent calories at Liks’ Conifer strip-mall spot.)

North Denver Metro Area

Glacier Homemade Ice Cream & Gelato

Address: 3133 W. 28th St., Boulder; 115 Wilcox St., Castle Rock
Our favorite flavor: In the stracciatella gelato, ribbons of chocolate break into bits for a better texture than standard chocolate chips.

Glacier has churned out a whopping 1,000 flavors since its inception in 2001, from the nontraditional (cotton candy, anyone?) to the classic (butter pecan is always a solid choice), with more being added each week. More than 70 of those flavors are available at any time, meaning you’ve got some tough decisions to make if you visit its tapestry-clad, oh-so-Boulder digs tucked into a strip mall off 28th street. (At its peak, Glacier operated a handful of shops across the metro, but today its only other outpost is in Castle Rock—an ideal spot to reward yourself and your progeny after back-to-school shopping at the outlet mall there.)

South Denver Metro Area

Fat Batter Ice Cream

Fat Batter’s Ledo family and their pups. Photo courtesy of Fat Batter

Address: 2469 S. Broadway, Denver (Overland)
Our favorite flavor: The Pistachio Crunch’s house-made pistachio cream turns the nutty flavor up to 11.

Three years ago, Dustin and Diane Lido started selling ice cream outside their Littleton home—and their neighbors couldn’t get enough. Soon Dustin started mingling with customers in front of the counter of a converted Airstream trailer, giving out samples and talking about his unique flavors. The former tech worker loved having his commercial ice cream kitchen attached to his house, but space was getting tight in Littleton, so this year they found a new house/ice creamery combo on South Broadway and parked the Airstream out front.

Dustin says he’s in the process of getting a business license to operate a full indoor ice cream shop, where affogato tasting flights will be part of the program. Until then, taste his Vanilla Ice Ice Baby made with Madagascar Bourbon vanilla beans and tonka beans (a European secret that boosts the vanilla flavor). “It’s the best vanilla ice cream in Colorado, and possibly the world,” Dustin says. Other bestsellers include Strawberry Fields Forever and Lavender Haze. Order scoops at the trailer and have a seat on the front porch. Show up late if you’re a night owl, because Fat Batter is open until 1 a.m. Wednesday through Saturday and until 11 p.m. on Sundays.

God Save the Cream

God Save the Cream owner Jessica La Forge. Photo courtesy of God Save the Cream

Address: 3296 S. Washington St., Englewood
Our favorite flavor: There’s more than just a hint of Stranahan’s whiskey in the Colorado blueberry whiskey—it’s like a cocktail in a scoop.

“I never really wanted a scoop shop; I wanted to re-envision how ice cream is served,” says God Save the Cream founder Jessica La Forge. After more than a decade of wholesale operation with accounts that include the Denver Zoo and Meow Wolf, the Culinary Institute of America graduate debuted her first brick-and-mortar spot in 2025 in a historical Englewood building that was once a neighborhood grocery store. Because of the building’s strict city regulations, La Forge can’t sell made-to-order food—which means no sundaes, scoops in cones, or root beer floats. But her pastry-chef background is evident in the array of ice cream sandwiches, frozen cake pops, brownie sundaes in takeout containers, and other chilly treats.

Core ice cream flavors (available in pints and 5.5-ounce minis) include smoked vanilla honeycomb, Bristle Cone (malted vanilla with chocolate chips, velvety caramel, and pieces of spiced waffle cone), Campfire Marshmallow, and Dirty Oreo (with ground Oreos mixed into the base). Enjoy your order on the attached patio while Fido has a sweet treat of his own: La Forge’s Milk Bone–topped pup cup.

Right Cream

A pint of Have Your Cake: chocolate ice cream with chocolate buttercream frosting, salty caramel, and gooey butter cake chunks. Photo by David Right

Address: 2423 S. Downing St., Denver (Rosedale)
Our favorite flavor: We like to pair Ube-by Baby, a toasty, nutty sweet potato flavor, with Right Cream’s Almost Too Salty caramel topping. (Flavors change regularly, so keep your fingers crossed.)

Fair warning: Right Cream may very well ruin you for all other ice creams. The flavors are so packed full of add-ins that they eat more like sundaes, even before you choose the likes of horchata-spiced shortbread crumbles, ribbons of Almost Too Salty caramel, fresh lemon curd, and sherry whipped cream to go on top. Owner David Right and his crew serve the creative concoctions from a tiny hut next to Rosedale’s Denver Beer Company, along with Right’s coveted smashburgers.

East Denver Metro Area

Darlene’s Ice Cream

Address: 3105 South Peoria St., Aurora
Our favorite flavor: The bitter-sweet balance of the Thai Tea is perfect for all seasons—refreshing in the summer and comforting in the winter.

Longtime Denver pastry chef Joy Williams-Clark named her brand-new ice cream shop after her grandmother to honor the family matriarch’s warm and welcoming personality. You’ll find that sense of neighborliness as time slows down just a little inside Darlene’s. Choose from classic and more creative flavors, all boosted with ingredients and techniques gleaned from Williams-Clark’s career: caramelized fruits, ribbons of caramel, and other house-made add-ins. Be sure to sample a few flavors before making your choice, and don’t forget to grab a fudgy dark chocolate brownie to take home.

Nuggs

Address: 5135 E. Colfax Ave., Denver (South Park Hill)
Our favorite flavor: In the Mountain Squeeze Key Lime, bits of graham cracker crust and a tart, creamy base create what tastes like a frozen slice of key lime pie.

The O’Sullivan brothers behind Brothers BBQ opened Nuggs to combat the ice cream desert that was the South Park Hill neighborhood 12 years ago. Now the area is brimming with banana splits, ice cream waffle tacos, and a case full of chocolate-chip cookie dough and Nuggle Cheesecake, thanks to the brothers’ churning and scooping. Ongoing Bus Rapid Transit construction has made East Colfax Avenue a little tricky to navigate, but Nuggs’ patio makes summer nights there a little sweeter.

Sweet Izzy

Address: 3003 E. Third Ave., Denver (Cherry Creek)
Our favorite flavor: First Tracks comes loaded with Sweet Loren’s sunflower-butter cups.

Ice cream is better when nobody gets left out—at least, that’s how Mike Doucette felt when he left his job to open an ice cream shop that his wife, Elizabeth, a vegan and holistic health coach, could actually enjoy. The result is Sweet Izzy, where every scoop is plant-based and gluten-free, since the base is made with coconut and oat milks. The Cherry Creek location, which opened in 2023, is the couple’s second shop, following the success of their original Cape Cod outpost founded in 2020. It’s also Denver’s only ice cream shop devoted entirely to vegan and gluten-free desserts.

Rather than playing it safe with a lineup of vanilla-adjacent flavors, Sweet Izzy leans into the kinds of indulgent combinations modern ice cream lovers expect. The result is a menu that feels creative first and built for dietary needs second. In addition to scoops, the shop offers milkshakes (surprisingly uncommon among vegan offerings), soft serve (which is best enjoyed as a Twisted Izzy, with two toppings mixed in), and nitro cold brew floats. But the sleeper hit is the crisp and buttery waffle cone, which contains no gluten or butter.

West Denver Metro Area

Magill’s World of Ice Cream

Address: 8016 W. Jewell Ave., Lakewood
Our favorite flavor: Order the Birthday Cake to feel like a kid on your most special day.

For more than 40 years, Magill’s has been answering the question of just how much caramel brownie fudge ice cream Lakewood can eat. Founded in 1981, the spacious spot was purchased in 2003 by Tom Kinney, a scooper and ice cream maker who was only 20 years old at the time. Flavors like huckleberry, horchata, cookie butter, and salted caramel cashew have been gobbled up by the gallon ever since, and fans know that the ice cream options will always be vast and varied.

Multiple Denver Locations

Em’s Ice Cream

Address: 2829 Fairfax Street, Denver (North Park Hill); Gold’s Marketplace, 10061 W. 26th Ave., Wheat Ridge
Our favorite flavor: House-made chocolate chips elevate Em’s classic mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Em’s has been rolling out great ice cream via its food truck since 2014 and opened a North Park Hill storefront in 2018; a shop in Wheat Ridge’s Gold’s Marketplace followed in 2022. Owner Andrew Silverman takes pride in his ice cream base, made with only cream, milk, eggs, and sugar (although more than a dozen flavors are egg-free and several are vegan), and in the organic ingredients that go into every flavor. For a seasonal treat, the pumpkin pie ice cream has chunks of real pumpkin pie (with a gluten-free crust) folded in.

Gelato Boy

Address: Multiple locations in Denver and Boulder
Our favorite flavor: The coffee chip has all the flavor of an affogato with none of the mess.

When Venice native Giulia De Meo fell in love with born-and-raised Coloradan Bryce Licht, she didn’t want to leave behind her beloved gelato in Italy. And so the couple recreated it here at Gelato Boy, a Boulder-born operation that’s expanded to Denver (Berkeley, Hale, and downtown). Made with less fat and sugar than ice cream, their gelato flavors use all-natural ingredients and local dairy. Several dairy-free options are also available.

Heaven Creamery

Address: Multiple locations
Our favorite flavor: The piña colada’s tropical combo of pineapple and coconut puts us in a vacation state of mind.

Martha Trillo’s Heaven Creamery unites the frozen dessert cultures of Mexico, Italy, and the United States under one roof. The Chihuahua native studied with makers in Mexico and Italy to perfect her paletas (fruit-forward popsicles) and gelato, respectively, before bringing her talents to the Denver area, where she has expanded her empire to seven shops (Cherry Creek, Centennial, RiNo, Lakewood, Boulder, Arvada, and Lowry). At every Heaven location, patrons can enjoy a rainbow of cream-based and nondairy vegan flavors (crafted with Trillo’s lactose-intolerant daughter in mind), all of which are light on sugar and heavy on fresh produce.

High Point Creamery

Address: Multiple locations
Our favorite flavor: The floral flavor of the tea and the crunchy bits of house-made cookie in the Earl Gray & Shortbread are pure comfort.

Ever since Erika Thomas opened her first High Point Creamery in Hilltop in 2014, the upscale parlor has been wooing local ice cream lovers with seasonal flavors like Basil with Blackberry Swirl and Orange Creamsicle, as well as the not-so-seasonal staples of Tin Cup Whiskey & Pistachio Brittle and Mint Chocolate Bark. If you can’t decide, order an ice cream flight, with your choice of hot fudge or caramel sauce—five flavors are so much better than one. Although the scoop counter inside Denver Central Market closed in May after its 10-year lease ended, Thomas just launched the newest High Point in nearby McGregor Square (joining locations in Berkeley, Central Park, Hilltop, and Fort Collins).

Little Man Ice Cream

Dog sniffs an ice cream cone — Little Man Ice Cream in LoHi. Photo courtesy of Little Man Ice Cream

Address: Multiple locations
Our favorite flavor: Unlike so many other flavors that promise a savory edge, Little Man’s salted Oreo actually delivers.

Is it even summer in Denver if you haven’t licked a scoop served out of a 28-foot-tall milk can? Little Man’s original LoHi location, built by founder Paul Tamburello in 2008, is iconic, and the concept spawned spin-offs across the Front Range under various names. Thankfully for Little Man seekers, a recent rebrand has brought the company’s Sweet Cooie’s (Congress Park), the Constellation (Central Park), and the Old Town Churn (downtown Fort Collins) under the Little Man name, along with shops in West Colfax, Littleton, Englewood, Greenwood Village, and Cherry Creek. (Psst: True Little Man heads can find the brand’s soft serve venture, Dang, in South Park Hill.)

Sweet Action

Address: Multiple locations
Our favorite flavor: The weird and wonderful blueberry basil shortcake captures the spirit of this iconic Denver brand.

Sweet Action opened its legendary Broadway shop in 2009; several years later, Gerry Kim and Josh Gertzen debuted Frozen Matter in Uptown. Then, in 2020, Kim and Gertzen bought Sweet Action, changing the name of their two Frozen Matter shops in the process. There’s a lot to love about the merging of the two brands, including the plentiful vegan flavors, the 100 percent wind-powered parlors (in Baker, Washington Park, Uptown, and Jefferson Park), the cocktail speakeasy behind the Uptown shop, and the flavors that run the gamut from Orange Blossom Mimosa to Chocolate Mint Brownie Blast. The couple still bake add-ins from scratch as well as the cookies for the shops’ ice cream sandwiches.

Sweet Cow Ice Cream

Address: Multiple locations
Our favorite flavor: The Buffalo Chip’s black-and-gold motif (brown sugar butter ice cream with dark chocolate and butterscotch chips) is a tip of the hat to the University of Colorado.

With seven locations (Longmont, North Boulder, South Boulder, Louisville, West Highland, Platt Park, and the Stanley Marketplace in Aurora) plus a roaming Moomobile ice cream truck, chances are you’re never far from a Sweet Cow. This is good news, because you don’t want to be separated from their laundry list of flavors (seriously, each location has 20-some scoopable options at a time) and celebration-worthy cakes.