Little Man Ice Cream Can

There’s only one thing better than eating ice cream straight from the carton: eating it straight from a three-story milk can in Denver’s vibrant Highland neighborhood. That’s the experience you’ll get at Little Man Ice Cream, a larger-than-life replica of a 1950s-era milk can that houses one of the city’s most beloved local ice cream parlors. 

About 28 feet tall and 15 feet in diameter, the can weighs more than 14,000 pounds. It’s become something of a local landmark, as well as a rendezvous for local families, college students, and couples. Go on a sunny day, and you’ll find Denverites of all walks of life lazing beneath the shade of colorful umbrellas on the expansive brick patio. 

Named for founder Paul Tamburello’s beloved and vertically challenged father—himself the son of an ice cream shop owner—Little Man serves up a vast array of original recipes, from Chocolate Salted Oreo to Pistachio Orange Blossom to Space Junkie, a black-raspberry ice cream laced with marshmallow and chocolate chunks. Better yet, every scoop has a positive impact: Little Man donates a percentage of each sale to child welfare, hunger relief, and other community programs. The philanthropic angle isn’t too surprising; Tamburello is a former youth minister.

The can isn’t the only place you’ll find Little Man slinging scoops. Since its 2008 ribbon-cutting, the creamery has expanded throughout Colorado, opening a handful of brick-and-mortar locations across the state. Several of the new shops are just as whimsically sculptural as the original. In Fort Collins, for example, servers hand cones through the windows of a 26-foot-tall ice cream churn bucket, complete with wooden siding and enormous carved handles. In Denver’s City Park, a parlor sits beneath a 75-foot, antique chrome-plated airplane. But Little Man’s original location remains the chain’s most iconic edifice—and its most popular.