The four-plus-mile stretch of Havana Street between Dartmouth and Sixth Avenue in Aurora is home to the most diverse array of international cuisine available in the metro area. From restaurants and markets to take-and-go shops and stands, food lovers of nearly any ethnicity or interest can find a place that will remind them of home or open new culinary doors. In Eat Up Havana, Westword contributor Antony Bruno will visit them all, one by one, week by week.
Previous stops:
Next Up: Milkroll
They say the phone eats first. But at Milkroll, that’s more than just a saying. It’s a business model.
Milkroll specializes in Thai-style rolled ice cream, a trend born entirely from the social media era. It originated in the street markets of Thailand, where photos of the colorful bowls of delicately curled ice cream accompanied by a seemingly endless array of toppings and textures quickly went viral back in the 2000s, as did the equally compelling videos of the intricate process of making them.
Among those who noticed was Mary Nguyen, a Denver native attending MSU as a healthcare management major who was looking for an interesting side hustle. Uninspired by the boba tea craze that was growing at the time, Nguyen saw rolled ice cream as an opportunity to pioneer something new in the Denver area. When a storefront lease opened up on Colfax in 2017, she rolled the dice and opened her version of the burgeoning movement: Milkroll.
“It was just testing my luck,” she recalls. “It was a trend on social media back in 2015, and we didn’t have anything like it here. So we just kind of brought that in.”
Shortly after, Nguyen switched her major to entrepreneurship and dedicated herself to Milkroll full-time. In 2019, she opened a second location on Aurora’s Havana Street. Last year, she closed the Colfax location and now focuses solely on Havana Street.
“When we first started, Aurora wasn't popping like it is now,” she notes. “But we chose Aurora for the diversity. Because it's Thai ice cream, you know, and this is an Asian area.”
First, the ice cream is quickly spread across a frozen metal plate to set up before rolling.
Antony Bruno
What You’re Eating
In Aurora, Milkroll seems to have found its groove. Even on a snowy Friday night in March, the store was a multigenerational, multicultural hotspot full of families and couples enjoying a late-night “dessert and a show.”The show is watching the ice cream being made — a far more involved process than simply scooping frozen dairy into a cup. Rolled ice cream is very much a hands-on affair. Actually, make that two hands.
A loose ice cream base is poured onto a frozen round metal plate. Then, a staffer takes two putty knife-shaped spatulas and cuts in whatever fillings and flavors the customer chooses, creating a sort of paste as the base begins to solidify from the cold.
Before it gets too solid, the staffer quickly spreads the paste into a thin layer across the metal plate, and then shaves the thin layer of ice cream into five to six rolls. After placing the rolls into a bowl, a second staffer whisks it away to the toppings table, where it is customized with such toppings as fruit, cereal, cookies, whipped cream, and much more.
The whole process takes a very intense two to three minutes per bowl and looks to be a formidable forearm workout. Teams of two take turns working the rolls and topping the bowls at regular intervals for a much-needed break after a few orders.
There’s little room for error, as the sheets of frozen cream need to be spread out and scraped into rolls very quickly before they become too hard to work. New employees typically start at the toppings table while training to roll the ice cream, a learning process that can take two to three months.
The result is a bowl of pretty rolls of ice cream that have been likened to a bouquet of flowers, enhanced with colorful toppings and other additions that just beg for a photo. Between the ice cream flavors, fillings and toppings, there are more than two hundred potential combinations to choose from. And each month brings a new featured topping — this month is focused on Girl Scout Cookies: Tagalongs, Samoas and the ever-popular Thin Mints.
The "I Am Your Father" made with activated charcoal powder is one of Milkroll's more popular house selections.
Antony Bruno
How To Choose
Fortunately, Milkroll features around a dozen house creations, giving newcomers a place to start. Top among them is the Unicorn Magic made with sweet cream mixed with blue and pink cotton candy, frosted animal crackers, a strawberry waffle stick and sprinkles.“That one’s very kid-friendly,” laughs Nguyen, noting that photos of the Unicorn Magic bowls circulating on social media were responsible for much of Milkroll’s early success. “I recommend first-timers go ahead and try one of our in-house creations so you kind of understand what it is.”
Other popular favorites include the YOLO (You Obviously Love Oreos) and the I Am Your Father, a mint cookie confection rolled with activated charcoal powder and garnished with Pocky sticks.
Milkroll’s regulars, meanwhile, have their own preferences. One memorable recurring order calls for Fruity Pebbles with “extra extra” fruit and condensed milk.
Interestingly, the rolls of ice cream are much firmer than your typical ice cream scoop. The dense, almost chewy texture is durable enough to survive a take-out trip home with ease.
But wherever you enjoy your Milkroll, don’t forget to take a picture.
Milkroll is located at 2712 South Havana Street in Aurora and is open from 1 to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 1 to 10 p.m. Friday, noon to 10 p.m. Saturday, and noon to 9 p.m. Sunday. For more information, follow it on Instagram @milkrollcreamery.
