Visiting the Inventing Room Is a Magical Treat

"We've been doing this since COVID, and it's just been an awesome program," says Ian Kleinman, the self-proclaimed Willy Wonka of Denver and chef/owner of the Inventing Room, a dessert shop like no other at 4431 West 29th Avenue in the West Highland neighborhood.

For years, Kleinman was a fine-dining chef. But after becoming fascinated with molecular gastronomy, he launched the Inventing Room as a catering and special events business. After a brief stint in a brick-and-mortar shop in the Ballpark neighborhood, the business moved into its current home in 2017, impressing visitors with treats like liquid nitrogen ice cream sundaes topped with exploding whipped cream.

After several years of operating as a traditional walk-in shop, though, Kleinman and his wife, Stacey, had to pivot when the pandemic hit. By the summer of 2020, the Inventing Room had reopened with a ticketed entry system to control the number of guests inside the shop while providing entertainment and desserts to small groups via its Science of Dessert program, which the couple called "an innovative and intimate dessert experience."
More than four years later, those experiences have become the focal point of the brick-and-mortar operation. "It allows me to spend more time with the guests and to go into the science of it," Kleinman explains. "And honestly, when I have kids come back a year later and say, 'Hey, I got into science because of doing a demo,' that's pretty freaking awesome. That's the reason I do this now."

Demonstrations change throughout the year, and reservations are available several times during each day for groups of up to sixteen guests. "It's not comfortable if it's more than that," Kleinman notes.

This summer the program was dubbed 2125, and it explored "what desserts will look like in Colorado in 100 years," says Kleinman. After a popular Halloween edition, the chef recently rolled out the Inventing Room's holiday experience, Naughty & Nice.

Priced at just under $20 per person after fees and taxes, a ticket includes a thirty-minute demonstration that kicks off with a crash course on liquid nitrogen (and a lesson about why that tongue-stuck-on-the-pole scene from A Christmas Story rings true). References to holiday favorites like Elf, Home Alone and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (in which Kleinman was an extra in the sledding scene — it was filmed in Summit County, where he grew up) pepper the presentation, which includes sample bites of treats such as Baklava Space Foam, hot chocolate marshmallows and Santa's Eggnog Pumpkin Space Cubes.
There's a trip to a black-light room, where guests nosh on cranberry glow-in-the-dark cotton candy and learn a bit about bioluminescence, and each attendee gets to choose a liquid nitrogen ice cream sundae to enjoy while browsing treats to take home like edible wallpaper ("The snozzberries really do taste like snozzberries," Kleinman says), Nerds pop rocks, Colorado Apple Snow and candy in the shape of retro toys such as Rubik's Cubes, Etch-a-Sketch and Game Boy.

Many of the shop's candies are also available to purchase online.

"I'm not a pastry chef; I was a restaurant chef. But desserts are such a great way to make people smile. When you get to the dessert course, you're expecting fun. That's why I like it so much," says Kleinman, who also still gets to flex his savory cooking skills via the catering arm of the business. The Inventing Room creates unique menus for around 200 events a year. "That challenges me, because I can always do new stuff," the chef notes. Plus, "we get to do the real cool shit" — like dropping packages from drones or creating food that floats.

Kleinman also creates the menu for the Inventing Room's regular Gobblefunk dinners, an intimate affair it hosts at the shop. Open to just twelve diners, it typically sells out in minutes. Each has a theme created by Kleinman's wife, and he gets free rein to concoct the menu, which remains a surprise for guests until they arrive.
While Kleinman remains focused on feeding Denver locals and the many tourists who attend the demonstrations, his business has gone global. "The Dubai government brought me over to cook at the Dubai Food Festival. They liked us so much they asked us to come set up shop," shares Kleinman. That was in 2016; the Inventing Room now has two traditional walk-in locations in Dubai and will open a shop in Saudi Arabia in the coming months.

"I'm very fortunate to do what we do," Kleinman concludes. "I've been through fine dining — just every bit of every operation — and I love running this with my wife. It's just me and her, so it allows us to be very flexible." This business, he adds, is all about "having fun with it and bringing that joy."

The Inventing Room is located at 4431 West 29th Avenue and is open by reservation only. For information, tickets to demonstrations and to shop online, visit tirdenver.com.