Keep Summer Alive with Denver Beer Co.’s New Eats—And Ice Cream

It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years since Denver Beer Co. first opened its doors on Platte Street, but here we are. Since that first pour, DBC has become a Migh High City institution—innovating and expanding to include multiple taprooms and a production brewery and canning facility. But despite the popularity of the Cerveceria, beer gardens, and craft seltzers, there’s always been something delicious missing. However, with the launch of its newest Rosedale location on Downing Street, DBC gives us something new to crave: elevated brewery eats.

“When we first opened Denver Beer Co., the idea was to create an ever-changing beer menu and serve it in our beer garden,”says Patrick Crawford, cofounder of Denver Beer Co. “As we had more experience with that, we realized adding even more stuff to the customer experience is even better, so we added food to complement the beers. We realized that beer is more than just drinking the beer—it’s the whole experience—and the more we can do to add to the experience of enjoying time with your friends, that’s our goal.”

When Denver Beer Co. bought the Rosedale property in late 2019, it came with two buildings—one of which had a kitchen. Instead of leasing it to a local food vendor (a strategy it employed at the brewery’s Arvada taproom), the team created DBC Eats, an in-house restaurant serving an elevated bar menu from chefs Tyler Rendon and Sarah Taylor. The fare includes things you’d expect on a brewery menu, as well as some surprises.

For example, the team created “reverse” chicken wings—house-smoked wings rubbed in ranch seasoning and served with a buffalo dipping sauce (they’re also trimmed into a lollipop shape for easier handling). Other standouts include the duck fat-fried french fries and chicken tinga sandwich (also available with cauliflower for a plant-based option). If you’re in the mood for lighter eats, veggies are in abundance. Try the butter lettuce cups, seasonal melon sticks (currently featuring watermelon), or the “Cool as a Cucumber” dish—a refreshing boat of seasoned cukes with creamy lime vinaigrette, Togarashi chili flakes, and pickled red onions.

And that’s not all. While the main building houses the brewery and DBC Eats, the team also purchased a small, adjacent structure that Crawford knew they could have some fun with.

“Within the first 10 minutes of envisioning what the patio and beer garden were going to look like, this building said to us it either needs to make ice cream or bagels,” Crawford says. “After a short period of time we decided it had to be ice cream.” And Yum Yum’s Ice Cream was born.

Crawford says that crafting beer and ice cream aren’t all that different. “You make it in big batches in the back and then you serve it all day long,” he says. “There’s a lot of similarities between ice cream and beer.” The DBC team has also hosted ice cream and beer pairings at the Platte Street taproom for several years, and Crawford says it’s always a hit. “I’m excited to keep doing that project and do it with our homemade ice cream and our fresh-made beer,” he says.

Yum Yum’s ice cream is made by chef Michael Ruiz in small batches (six liters at a time), with fresh ingredients—and beer, when possible. Try the Sticky Fingers—a s’more-like scoop made with Graham Cracker Porter. Adults will enjoy ordering the punny Citrus Got Real or You Wanna Peach of Me? flavors just as much as their kids will love ordering the aquamarine, sprinkle-topped Circus Freak. And for the 21-plus crowd, be sure to ask about the secret menu of beer-and-ice cream pairings—you can even ask for beer in a plastic cup, then wander over to Yum Yum’s to make it a float.

“I think we believe life is fun at heart, so to keep everything really fun and playful has been a goal of Denver Beer Co. from the very beginning,” Crawford says. “That’s why we have all sorts of silly beer names like Princess Yum Yum and Graham Cracker Porter. We wanted to do the same thing with Yum Yum’s—have a rainbow logo and a really easy-to-remember, fun, and playful name.”

The family-friendly patio and beer garden also feature areas for BYO lawn chairs, and small hills to run, climb, or roll down—a good time for all, no matter how many years you’ve been drinking beer or eating ice cream.

2425 S. Downing St.