New ice cream shop survived COVID-19, now plans to thrive
DENVER — After months of work and getting all the proper licenses, LeDay Grant was finally ready to open up an ice cream shop in March of 2020. Of course, as we know now, her challenges were far from over.
“I’m a believer so I knew something good would come out of it,” Grant told Rocky Mountain PBS in July 2020.
Her shop, MyKing’s Ice Cream Shop, sits in Denver’s Skyland neighborhood, north of City Park. Even though many well-established restaurants and businesses closed in the last year-and-a-half, Grant's budding business made it through the worst of the pandemic.
“We’ve been open different hours to accommodate for the pandemic. We were closed for a couple of months. We had one day only, when we were only open on Sundays, then we went to three days, and now we’re only open for four days,” said Grant. “We’re hoping to increase our hours for customers because a lot of people do come in to support MyKing’s Ice Cream, but we don’t have the staffing for it.”
[Related: 'Our only crisis is staffing': Restaurants ride next pandemic wave]
That is part of Grant’s plans to grow the business. She is looking for another employee, which would be a big difference considering the only workers currently are Grant, her grandmother and a couple of contract employees.
This isn't even Grant's primary job. When she opened MyKing’s, she was still working a full-time job and another part-time job. Now she only has a full-time job outside running the ice cream shop.
“At that point my business meant more to me than this part-time job, and so that allowed me to open up my store more,” said Grant.
She is nothing short of dedicated to her business. A big part of the reason for that is her son and the namesake of her shop, MyKing.
“I want him to be able to go to the store, this ice cream shop, when he’s an adult,” said Grant. “And to know that ‘My mom did this for me,’ so losing it is not an option for me because I definitely want him to see that I put a lot of work and effort into this ice cream shop for him.”
MyKing is on board with that plan. At three-and-a-half years old, he’s loving the ice cream life.
“I try not to let him come too much because he always wants ice cream. And it’s not just ice cream, he wants a shake, he wants a banana-pudding shake every time he comes into the shop,” said Grant.
A banana-pudding shake is just one of the hot-selling, cold treats at the shop. Other shakes include cereal, strawberry shortcake, cheesecake, and the Colorful Colorado.
“It has blue moon ice cream, which tastes like fruit loops, and has fruity pebbles inside,” said Grant. “And we use a marshmallow rim that looks like the mountains of Colorado.”
Each time you visit the shop, there will likely be another chance to try something different. The ice cream flavors rotate between 12 different options, and Grant has some unique ideas like dessert nachos where waffle pieces serve as your chips.
While the ice cream gets you in the door, Grant hopes her place goes beyond that. She wants to create a community and plans to really start leaning into her motto now.
“My mission for our ice cream shop is 'Building the community one scoop at a time,'” said Grant. “And there are a lot of things I want to do to help build the community. I just want to do it in a sweet way with ice cream.”
So far she’s already hosted a few events at the shop including a kids' free yoga and ice cream class. She's also getting ready to host a second annual kids entrepreneur “show out” during which kids can come display their items or products they want to sell. Reaching out to the kids and families in the area is exactly what Grant wants to do.
“We have this thing in our shop, like a photo wall. We like to take pictures of all of the customers—if we’re not busy—when they come in just so they can remember their visit when they come back,” said Grant. “And they can grow up with their kids, and they can say ‘Look, I was pregnant and now you’re walking’… I want them to be able to build those family memories.”
So now that the world is opening back up from the pandemic, Grant believes she'll have more of a chance to make connections to the community and become that go-to spot for the neighborhood.
“I’m just excited to be able to be there to do what I love to do which is supporting the community,” said Grant. “It’s turning into something bigger than ice cream, and it’s really exciting.”
The second annual young entrepreneur show out is Saturday, August 7 at MyKing's Ice Cream from 1:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Those interested must sign up by July 30. You can send an email to mykingsicecream@gmail.com.
Amanda Horvath is a multimedia producer at Rocky Mountain PBS. You can reach her at amandahorvath@rmpbs.org.