The scoop on ice cream king Paul Tamburello.

AuthorRyckman, Lisa
PositionGOOD COMPANY

Paul Tamburello:

Owner, Little Man Ice Cream; owner/broker, Generator Real Estate

Hometown: Denver

Age: 55

Website: littlemanicecream.com

What's he's reading: "How to Kill a City: Gentrification, Inequality, and the Fight for the Neighborhood," by Peter Moskowitz

Fave ice cream flavor: 16th Street Chocolate ("Chocolate with great big chunks of brownie in it and a swirl of fudge.")

Paul Tamburello never intended to build an empire out of ice cream. His career has been--and still is--that of a real estate professional and developer, the mover behind Root Down and Linger restaurants, LoHi Market Place and Highland Lofts, who focuses nowadays on adaptive reuse projects in the Sunnyside neighborhood. That whole ice cream thing? "Literally a hobby," says Tamburello, who recalls, as a kid, making ice cream with his friends and vying to see who could come up with the wackiest combo ("Strawberry--with chocolate in it!" he says). So when he was trying to decide how to develop his little piece of land in the Highland neighborhood, he initially thought about an office building. And then he thought about ice cream, and the places he loved as a kid, like the Soda Straw Restaurant and Ice Cream Parlour--the self-described "TASTIEST PLACE IN THE WORLD!" "That place was magical for me," Tamburello says. So he set out to create a little magic of his own, and do some good, too. We caught up with him on a hot July day spent placing the first piece of a 75-foot replica of a Lockheed Constellation airplane wing on the roof of Constellation Ice Cream, Little Man's soon-to-open venue in the Eastbridge Town Center, site of the former Stapleton Airport.

ColoradoBiz: You've got a 28-foot tall, 14,000-pound cream can outside one shop, a replica of a Constellation airplane wing on top of another, a ginormous ice cream churn as part of another. Isn't great ice cream enough?

Paul Tamburello: I don't think great ice cream is enough. You can buy ice cream anywhere. It really is about the experience. I think you look at what's going on in retail and the changes that are happening where retailers have to make their place a destination. We're trying to mix sort of really fun design with that serendipitous moment when you're looking at that thing and then you smell the waffle cones, and you hear the music, and you walk up and touch it, and it's a real metal can. Visually, it interests you. And when you taste the product, we hope it speaks to our commitment to do it right.

CB...

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