Editor’s note: This is part of our series, Hidden Gems, in which we take a look at those restaurants you should know about but may not. They are either tucked away in strip malls or otherwise off the beaten path.Try their Try them out, and if you like what you eat, pass the word.
Like the times I slaughtered a turkey, took off my clothes at a nudist camp’s karaoke night, and lobbied for bull testicles to get their own food holiday, it started with a story assignment. In summer 2020 there was a new ice cream delivery operation and I, in what I consider my crowning professional achievement, had somehow netted myself a reputation as one of Denver’s premier ice cream journalists, and so an editor commanded me to check it out. I obliged.
In those early pandemic days, David Right packed up his car with his homemade frosty pints and dropped them at customers’ doors. Like so many firsts of summer — first kiss, first leap off the high dive, first bite of Right Cream — I still remember the flavors he brought me: Cookies & Cream and Peach Emoji. I instantly knew. This was life-changing ice cream.
Other people knew, too, and Right Cream quickly grew out of that home delivery system and Right, along with partner Josh Siegel, instead started making those small batch pint drops in an H Mart parking lot. That’s where I picked up my favorite Strawberry 710 with lemon curd swirls and pistachio streusel; the oddly addictive Main Attraction with kettle corn ice cream, circus animal cracker toffee and vanilla bean marshmallow; and more of that Cookies & Cream laced with chunks of Oreo toffee and ponds of caramel.
Right makes most every ice cream mix-in from scratch, like gooey butter cake, tangy peach jam, and horchata-spiced shortbread crumble. His pints are loaded with all of it, making every bite rich with that Almost Too Salty Caramel and chunks of cashew and potato chip brittle. Ice cream purists may not go for flavors like Peanut Butter Cake Batter or ube (yam) but cool, cool. You stick with your vanilla.
I still mourn the loss of my H Mart parking lot ice cream drops, but Right Cream outgrew that, too. Right soon got a couple of RiNo pick-up windows and then a Dairy Block alley. That’s where the sundaes were born, like the Biscoff cookie and Thai tea ice creams drizzled with ginger caramel, blackberry jam, and crowned with cookies and whipped cream, or the Nobel Peace Prize-worthy strawberry and malted lemon ice creams topped with pistachio streusel, lemon curd and fresh whip.
In February, Right Cream finally got the little scoop shop it deserves, in Rosedale next to Denver Beer Co. While the hours are still a little wonky — right now it’s only open on weekends, and you should very much check Right Cream’s Instagram page before making your ice cream pilgrimage — I hear delicious things are afoot.
For one, Right says they’ll be extending their hours starting May 20 to Thursday 5-8 p.m., Friday and Saturday 12-9 p.m. and Sunday 12-8 p.m. He also says he’ll be adding a roster of fizzees to the menu (sorbets with sparkling water) and playing around with ice cream desserts that go beyond his not-so-basic sundaes.
The best way to secure those coveted pints that changed my ice cream life, though, is to preorder online Monday or Tuesday for weekend pick-up. And while I’ve never again gotten naked at karaoke night or killed another turkey, the Right Cream story assignment is one I keep coming back to.
Right Cream: 2423 S. Downing St., Denver; rightcream.com
