Red Trolley

Red Trolley closed? Noooooooo!!! I loved this place. So bummed. If you are still craving ice cream, try Little Man a few blocks away. Sigh.

Sweet tooth satisfied. For a while, the Red Trolley has been on the radar for good desserts, namely gelato, in the Highlands neighborhood. I finally made it there this evening at the imploring of my friend, a major RT fan.
A video of my friend’s different dances for each flavor would be a sufficient visual review, but I did not film her. Flavor notes will have to do in this case. Toasted banana — not overly banana and this non banana fan actually appreciated it. Vanilla — similar finish texture to cake icing. Lemon Sorbetto — great lemon flavor, slightly pillowly. Strawberry Lavender — needed more lavender notes, strawberry was nice.
It’s an inviting environment. They are under new management as of this past Monday. The new manager said they’re reworking several of the flavors, though keeping several customer favorites intact. I was overall impressed with the lighter feel (less dense than others) of their gelato. I can’t wait to see what they do and what new flavors and reworkings appear.

Chocolate Covered Sea Salt Caramel.
I love it so much, I had to write an update professing my undying love for it.
Also, big ups to the Red Trolley staff for being so gracious and helpful and happily packing us a to go pint of this crack like substance a few minutes before they closed.

I haven’t been here since my ice cream tour last summer. Super yummy! I got a small cup with ½ Stratta-​something (vanilla base with chocolate bits) and ½ Salted Caramel.
If this were only closer I’d go here more (and wind up getting fat).

Four stars for friendly. The gelato was very good enough and decadent!
Payday (really) and Chocolate Hazelnut.
The Potter Highlands neighborhood is charming, and it was a perfect place from which to launch my after dinner-​dessert stroll before driving back to Boulder for the night.

I have been excited to try Red Trolley ever since we moved to the Highlands in May. I finally ventured there last night on my bike and was overall pretty pleased with the experience.
The store is adorable and the workers were really friendly despite it being just 15 minutes to closing time. I thought there would be more of a selection, so I was a little disappointed in that sense.
I chose the Orange Dreamsicle gelato and Mike had Strawberry Lavendar gelato. Both were great but so rich/​sweet that I was over mine in just a few bites. Next time I will share or order the kiddie size for sure.
I want to keep supporting Red Trolley and since I rarely go out for ice cream, it will certainly be a go-​to spot for late-​night cravings. Curious as to how it compares to the Little Ice Cream Man…

We walked down again last night… we couldn’t believe they are open until 9 on a Sunday!
Had the strawberry lavender which was delicious — light and sweet and mouthwatering delicious. This time I got the one scoop of gelato, but the kid’s cup would have been enough — both the boyf and I shared the single scoop, and it was too much for us.
I love, love, love this place. There was a great crowd of people, friendly staff, GLUTEN FREE CONES, and another great experience.

I guess this review is long overdue because we’ve been back several times and each time was better than the last. I should have written an update as soon as I realized that none of the previous problems were still present. For ice cream, we now have at least two choices on this side of town. Sometimes it comes down to whether we want to sit inside or out whether we’ll come here or Little Man. Other times it’s what flavor we’re craving. The staff at both are great and I now think Red Trolley might even have the edge. Two scoops please.

Bright red outside and small inside but got some benches outside. Icecream is good and rootbeer floats are huge. It’s also a cereal bar and sells hotdogs. Not huge variety but all homemade fresh. Parking lot very small. Overall a nice little icecream shop.

One of my best friends has lived in this neighborhood forever (you know, before it was hip when it was literally the ghetto) so I’ve spent quite some time around here and let me say, Red Trolley is one of my favorite places to go. Open till late (11 PM, but twice I’ve been there at 10:15ish to find they had already closed. Booooo! Minus one star!) with delicious gelato like Sea Salt Caramel (amazing!) and Peach White Tea (are you kidding? So fantastic!)
Plus they serve up gelato in cute little plastic cups that I always take home and keep coins in.
I’m taking away one star because the staff is kind of lousy. I stood at the cash register for a full five minutes while the girl sat in front of me and texted and didn’t look up once. What– were you sexting someone or are you just dumb?
I really hope Red Trolley steps up their game, because as of late my friends and I prefer to make the walk down to Little Man for to drool over– I mean… purchase. from… that staff…

Why Red Trolley? Why?
Why does a skinny hot dog take 25 minutes to heat up?
Why are you out of condiments when the place is empty on a Saturday afternoon?
Why is one of your employees on his laptop at a table while we are trying to find a clean table to sit at because most of them are dirty?
Why is it okay to serve a flat root beer float?
Why can we hear you talking about the flat root beer behind the counter, but don’t offer to replace ours until we bring them up to the counter?
Why do you offer to replace our flat root beer floats but then forget about us when two new customers walk in?
We waited 15 minutes for our replacement floats and then decided to leave empty-​handed.

Wow, I think I finally found a rival to Chic Fil A for friendly service. It’s kind of astounding when you arrive there 10 minutes before they close with a group of indecisive girls and the girl who was helping us was patient to the extreme and readily offering samples suggestions and just general friendliness.
They offer both gelato and ice cream and use all natural local ingredients and absolutely no artificial flavors. And not that I would ever have the self control to order one, but they offer the «tiny trolly» which is an ice cream cone the size of a mouse’s dunce cap. They also sell the flavors in pints in a cooler in the back and offer NOVO coffee and a ton of tea.

I have to agree with Holly C, Red Trolley has slipped. I recently went in for a Clover cuppa and I’m glad that’s what I went for. The place was dirty, including the ice cream freezers, the flavors appeared to be uninspired, the condiment bar for the Hot Dogs were just plain gross, and there only seemed to be one employee.
It was really sad to see. I hope they are able to get it back together. With other amazing ice cream selections like Sweet Action and Little Man down the street, they need to.

Since the last time i was here, Red Trolley was reviewed and (fairly) criticized by the Westword’s restaurant critic who needs no introduction. They responded by improving their formerly messy and mustardless hot dog bar and making certain that their root beer (from Wynkoop Brewing) was fresh and fizzy. From what i saw at my visit yesterday, their reforms were successful; they have several kinds of mustard available, the onions and tomatoes are segregated, and the buns are warm and soft.
Katie ordered green tea with her pheasant sausage (the tea is from Wystone’s in Belmar and the sausage is from the local Continental Sausage; more on this later) and i had Novo coffee with my Buffalo Bill.
The fertility rate of the Highlands neighborhood seems to be supernaturally high. This place is usually crawling with children. Do people move there to have kids, or when they have kids, or do the real estate agents just throw in a couple of 5 year-​olds at signing? The 2 foot-​tall crowd obscured the gelato display for most of our visit. The extra attention demanded by all the yuppies and their larvae also delayed the process of finishing our dogs on the grill. Still, i can’t fault a place for its clientele. Red Trolley rightfully should be mobbed by young families. I don’t mind a long wait in a worthy local place like this, but if you would rather avoid the rugrats, find a seat away from the magic red button that activates the toy red trolley on the track overhead.
We had almost finished our Boulder chips by the time the dogs arrived, and we promptly got up to decorate them. Cheap mustard, high-​end mustard, yellow mustard, brown mustard, chunky mustard, hot mustard, and more mustard… but only one hard-​to-​find bottle of ketchup. I didn’t mind, since my dog was properly festooned with tomatoes, pickles, and, you guessed it, mustard.
I’ve seen some complaints in these reviews about the casings on the sausages, and it can be disconcerting to take that first bite through the tough intestine, but at least it’s not plastic, dyed with cochlinear bugs. Sausages properly made are more difficult to bite than cheap hot dogs made from slaughterhouse floor sweepings. The buffalo sausage (made of chopped meat, not ground) was very satisfying and filling, but i was starting to get distracted. I had overheard that mango gelato was available. I’ve been dreaming about the mango since the first time i had it last spring.
Right after the weiner course, we took advantage of slack tide and waded up to the dessert counter, where we tasted several gelatos, though we had already decided on the Mango and Green Tea for myself and Katie, respectively. Katie tried the Honey Lavender to see if it resembled a cup of frozen lotion (it did; lavender is so rarely in food, so frequently in hygiene products) and i tried the Raspberry Pistachio Swirl — it was good, but it was no mango. Mango gelato is better than God’s own mangoes. It has the same sticky, slippery texture, the same complex sweetness, but none of the teeth-​clogging strings, and you don’t have to peel it.
Red Trolley is part of a network of local businesses who proudly sell each other’s merchandise. I realized yesterday just how expansive this network is. They serve (and advertise) Novo Coffee, Boulder Canyon Chips, Wystone’s tea, Wynkoop Root Beer, and Continental Sausage. After our trip to Wystone’s last week, it’s obvious that they share their gelato, but it’s not as fresh as at Red Trolley. Get tea and salad at Wystone’s, and coffee and gelato at Red Trolley.

Red Trolley’s «Banana-​Chocolate-​Peanut Butter Gelato» was listed by Denver Magazine as one of the 100 must eats in the city, so I gave it a shot:
Rating: 6 (out of 10)
Price: $ 4.50
The Skinny: I really root for Red Trolley. They don’t use anything artificial, they’re against high fructose corn syrup, and everything they serve has zero trans fats. I’d love for that to do well — for it to catch on everywhere. The trade-​off, of course, is higher price, which the health-​conscious will tell you is better to pay up now than later when you’re in the hospital after eating the cheap, poisonous stuff. An ounce of prevention, they say. To RT’s credit, the banana-​chocolate-​peanut butter gelato is almost worth the health mark-​up. Its flavor alone nearly justifies it, which is the only way to convert the masses.
To me, the ultimate standard of Chocolate-​Peanut Butter ice cream is Baskin Robbins. Coming upon the ribbons of frozen peanut butter in the mix was like finding gold. They were solid & sugary, and outrageously good. If there was only one fault in this version from Red Trolley, it is the peanut butter. I found it to be more «gloppy» than solid. More «natural» than sugary. Perhaps that’s intentional since they’re into the whole health thing. I dunno. If that’s the case, it seems odd considering I’m ordering dessert, and their waffle tasted as though it was dipped in a pool of granulated sugar. But that was the only fault. The rest was very, very good. The chocolate and banana did what they’re there to do, and the cone, in it’s sugary glory, was delicate and surprisingly excellent. Made me keep cheering for Red Trolley.
I’ve got a picture of it up on the blog on my profile
jko

Went in today to try their «Trolley-​cino,» which, had I known was an iced drink, probably wouldn’t have lured me in on this cold day. But I receive their Scoop emails, and I don’t pass up a $ 1.99 coffee drink deal. Ever.
I was underwhelmed by the Trolley-​cino. And when I told the woman it was «for here» she explained that the chocolate/​salt/​caramel are pre distributed in the plastic to-​go cups, so that’s the cup they serve it in. Okay. The drink itself did not taste much like coffee, which is a little strange, seeing how she indicated they use toddy cold brew as the coffee base (which is usually quite strong) – it had a nice sweet and savory combination to begin with, then once the chocolate (syrup?) was diluted by the melting ice, I mostly got sea salt taste through the straw. Now, I am a huge fan of salt, so this was kinda cool at first, but then the novelty melted and I realized I was sipping saltwater with a hint of chocolate out of a straw.
I decided to get a Clover brewed coffee to make up for my disappointment. Unfortunately, the woman working did not acknowledge the fact that I was still a «for here» customer, so she put it in a paper to go cup. Yes, I’m a freak about my coffee, so yes, I was peeved she didn’t ask me if it was for here… because coffee that is brewed in a Clover Machine should really be enjoyed out of a ceramic mug. If today was the first time I visited The Red Trolley, I might not go back. But lucky for me, I know their potential, have tasted their delicious all natural hot dogs and have consumed coffee prepared and served in a more mindful manner. It’s no secret that quality product must be supported by savvy staff. My experience today reminded me of this fact. I’d give two stars if I were basing my review off of today only, but I would like to average in my past visit as well. I hope Red Trolley doesn’t end up being a hit or miss type of place. Their approach to quality food and fresh ingredients is too valuable to let staff who don’t care about high standards let it slip away.

They have gelato, ice cream, handmade milkshakes, freshly baked waffle cones. and a train that goes around the shop. It’s classic, through and through. Absolutely delectable stuff.
I haven’t tried breakfast there, yet, but I can’t imagine anything less than great there.

They have Novo coffee and a clover machine for by the cup coffee. It is $ 3 for a small coffee so if you don’t really love coffee then don’t bother. However, If you love coffee, it is a must try.

Cute old-​timey shop inside. There’s even a namesake red trolley that runs around the store (look for the big red button).
I came for the gelato, which was delicious. Best of all, if you just want a little sweet treat (or want to eat a lot of different flavors), there are super-​mini cones for just a dollar.
I was pleasantly surprised to find more than just ice cream and gelato. Delicious Novo coffee, served the Novo way: choose your beans, and they are ground to order and prepared in a Clover coffee machine. (Note: now that Sbux bought Clover, no more non-​Sbux shops can buy a Clover machine. This makes any indie shop with a Clover a very, very special thing.) Pricey, but worth every penny for what might possibly be the perfect cup of coffee.
I can’t wait to go back for the gourmet hot dogs or the cereal bar. Or for root beer happy hour. This was truly a BIG find for me on the Burger/​Bike tour.

Ice cream and gelato! Super friendly staff! Hint: There is parking on the side of the building
I had heard to much about it, i had to make the trek! Pops was in town, and he loves sweets, so off we went!
I didn’t see the parking near the side — bummer!
The inside is adorable! Little tables and chairs, neat lighting, just wonderful! Great for a date!
The offered up tastes of anything we wanted — i tried the chocolate truffle — holy rusted metal batman! I tried a couple other flavors but immediately returned to the first taste!
I got the single — they do it as scoops vs the other places in town that fill the cup — better for my waist line, but interesting difference!
Pops got the chocolate and the cherry — mmmm! very tasty!
We took our goodies outside and enjoyed the fabulous colorado weather and the awesome gelato!
Definitely a fun part of town and a great destination for a bike ride!