Sweet Stop: Black-Owned Ice Cream Shop MyKings Celebrates Five Years

Denver is home to many top-notch ice cream options but for owner Le’Day Grant, MyKings IceCream Shop is not just about selling product, it’s about being a space to have fun and bring people together.

On Saturday, March 1 and Sunday, March 2, the shop located at 2851 Colorado Boulevard will celebrate its fifth anniversary with music, giveaways, surprises and specials including a $5 secret menu of exclusive treats; a free treat for every fifth customer and a limited-edition anniversary flavor.

“I wanted to create a foundation first off and then a fun place with good vibes for people to come and interact with fun treats, creative treats and just a place to build the community, one scoop at a time,” Grant recalls of launching her business. 

She always provided treats for her family and dreamed of opening a shop, so she began laying the groundwork for by securing licensing and permits. But with the pandemic looming in early 2020, she debated pushing the opening date. Ultimately though, she decided to go ahead with her plan to debut the shop on March 1, 2020 with the help of her grandmother’s advice.

“So opening MyKing's Ice Cream two weeks before COVID, it was exciting because it took a long time to get there, the licensing and everything.” Grant says. “And so I kept wanting to push it back. I didn't feel like I had the perfect story yet. I didn't think it was ready to open. And my grandmother told me, she said, 'Day, if you don't open, you probably will never open.”

Grant put the entire business together by herself without the help of loans so when the pandemic-era indoor dining shutdown went into effect just two weeks after her shop's debut, she had to quickly change focus to catering festivals and appearing at various events to promote her business.

“So it was a heartbreak in the middle,” Grant says. “To open right there, I'm like, well, do I stop? Do I just cut the short? Do I let it go? But I call myself the basketball player of business owners because I learned to pivot in the middle of COVID. I learned to cater, create a catering menu for our store.”

Expanding the reach of MyKings proved to be valuable as her shop has become an official vendor of Denver Public Schools and she continues to work with different businesses and non-profits.

Another part of MyKings' success is its fun and customizable menu which includes treats such as Colorado Boulevard Shakes, Denver Dessert Nachos, Mile High Floats and City Sammie Slaps — the MyKings spin on ice cream sandwiches.

“So we have homemade ice cream that people love, but what makes our store different is that we create — we allow the customers to create their special treat that they would like so they can customize,” Grant notes. “We have over twenty toppings that people can choose from and we also have fun things like how you can mix in your shakes.”

A mother of four, Grant prioritizes helping kids by reading books to elementary school kids on Saturdays and creating free activities around major holidays. She has also worked with the Denver Youth Employment Program for three years, offering students the opportunity to be employees at MyKings during the summer to learn customer service and other business skills.

Being a woman- and Black-owned business, Grant feels she has to work harder to gain people’s trust when customers enter her store. “I'm really big on customer service,” she notes. “I don't have anything against any person, any color, any shape, any size. So when people come in, I treat them all as if they're my cousin, my family. I'm treating everyone the same way. You won't get a different energy from me. And so that's what I also want them to feel when they come in, that you're going to get the same thing. I'm going to be as patient with you as I was with the last person that you saw in front of you. I'm going to take care of you the same way.”
Grant advises aspiring business owners to draft a business plan and utilize Denver’s resources for new businesses; she emphasizes believing in and executing your dreams.

“If you think of something, if you dream of something, if you really believe in something, I feel like you should go for it,” she concludes. “I feel like a lot of people fail by not doing what they want to do.”

MyKings IceCream Shop is located at 2851 Colorado Boulevard and is open from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 11:30 to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For more information, visit mykingsicecream.com.