I always find it humorous (read:annoying) the number of places that claim to be “all-natural”, especially in regard to ice cream and gelato. Best I can see, they lay claim to this moniker because they use milk and sugar in their products and milk and sugar are, of course, all natural. Some even go so far as to let us know where their milk comes which, if they are drawing attention to it, usually means that it’s local and free of unnecessary hormones and additives (all good things, mind you). It begs the question though, what else goes into their ice cream and gelato? There’s oh so much more to it.
Admittedly, I’m what many would call a food freak. I homemade a goat milk formula for all my three babies, my first child had an apple juice sweetened cake for her first birthday and didn’t have the pleasure of her first taste of sugar until at least a few months after that (standards loosened considerably on the next two). We stick to organic as much as is humanly (and financially) possible. The bottom line for me is that we have control of what we put in our bodies and the choices we make from the very beginning affect the quality of our entire lives. On the same token, I believe that food is one of the great pleasures of life and should be enjoyed abundantly with the ones you love. Thus, The Red Trolley. I wanted to enjoy a treat with my family every now and then, I did not want to compromise my standards to the point that many places were asking me to.
We made a commitment to some very specific things from the beginning. We believed that specificity was the key to setting us apart from all the other “all natural” claims in the marketplace. We would never carry a product that contained high fructose corn syrup, trans fats (hydrogenated oil) artificial color or artificial flavor. Our commitment has broadened (while others narrows) since we opened in 2008. No mono and diglycerides (next time you are in another ice cream shop ask them about mono and diglycerides in their base), no nitrates, no artificial sweeteners–really, no artificial anything.
Honestly, it hasn’t been easy. Cost has been the greatest factor, turns out it’s much cheaper to serve your customers fake food. We would love to be the cheapest scoop in town but, it seems that cheap and high quality cannot co-exist. We have kept the cost to the consumer as low as possible (as evidenced to me every time I realize that we’re running a “non-profit” ) and we try to run traffic driving specials (root beer float happy hour, $2 t-dog Tuesdays) as much as possible. We will, however, not make any compromises on our standards and I know there are plenty of people like me who would rather have a reasonably sized scoop of real ice cream than a mammoth scoop of manufactured mush.
We’re in the business of fun. The Red Trolley should be a place where you come with all the best people in your life to enjoy some really delicious all natural treats and to make memories that will last forever. We are proud of the fact that we can stand behind every product that we serve and that we have never made compromises to save a buck. This means that you can always feel good about what you are enjoying in our store.
Fresh steamed eggs, cheese, bacon or sausage cozied up between an organic Rudi’s english muffin plus a cup of joe, or juice for just 5 bucks!! Weekdays 7-11, weekends 8-11. Yummy.
Looking for a deliciously romantic ending to your feast? Charm your Valentine with Red Trolley’s incredible treats. We have dark and white chocolate covered strawberry gelato bombes on a bed of red velvet cake for those looking to impress. For the simpler tastes we have chocolate dipped strawberries.
Bombes are $4.50, strawberries will be market price. All will be available on Saturday afternoon through Valentine’s Day.
5280 Top of the Town voting has begun! You can get your ballot at www.5280.com/tot/. E-mail coffee@theredtrolley.com to let us know you voted and we’ll enter you’re name for a drawing for a Red Trolley t-shirt.
It’s “Holly Days” this weekend on 32nd Ave, which means that Santa Claus will be at The Red Trolley on Sunday from 1-7 for FREE digitals sent to your e-mail address and instant frameable prints for only $5.00. In addition we’ll have tractor pulled hay rides, caroling, trees for sale, crafts, treats at local retailers and a candlelight procession ending with Santa reading (his very favorite!) The Night Before Christmas.
Give your kids (dogs, parents etc…) their Holiday fill of fun and excitement.
Oddly enough, it’s a breakfast sandwich. One that you can get with a cup of coffee, orange juice or our whole leaf tea for only $5 everyday! Now that we’re opening at 7am weekdays, we wanted to be sure to provide a Trolley quality breakfast for our coffee customers and we wanted to provide it fast. Enter Fastracks. Our signature steamed eggs, your choice of cheese, bacon or sausage (made locally at Continental Sausage) all housed between a yummy Rudi’s organic English muffin (also local). All the nutrition you need to get your day started right. I’m tellin’ ya, there’s no better deal in town.
All we ask is this…remember Red Trolley for your morning coffee. We promise to get you in and out fast or provide a clean, comfortable place for you to work (Free Wi-Fi!) if hanging out is your thing. And we promise to do it all with a smile. We brew a different Novo coffee every day (take a world coffee tour every week!) and, really, you have to try our new whole leaf teas. They’ll make you understand why the rest of the world is so obsessed with tea.
So make the Trolley a part of your morning routine, we’re sure you won’t be disappointed.
PS. Don’t forget the Trolley on the weekends too! Our delicious made to order brunch will please the whole family!!
I love Fall. Always have. Sweaters, leaves, spiced cider. But, I must admit, being the proprietor of an ice cream shop has lent a certain bitterness to the falling leaves. The bustle of summer is gone, no more lines for gelato, no more families gathering on the benches in front of the store, no more kids running up and down the street (at all hours I might add!) with chocolate ice cream remnants on their lips. The Trolley too trades in its summer duds for the accoutrement of Fall. The good news of course, is that gelato tastes just as good in December as it does in July–and we’re here for you with the same committment to quality that we had all summer long. The even better news, however, is that as the seasons change, the Trolley changes with them.
To highlight this fact we are rolling out our “Free Novo Coffee and Red Trolley Tea for a Whole Week” promotion (I just made that up. I probably should have come up with something more clever like “Get Your Rush on Us” or “Come For Coffee Without Coughin’ Up Any Coin (oh, that’s my fave!) but I digress…). That’s right, free. From October 19th-23rd anyone who signs up for our newsletter, The Scoop, will receive a coupon for a week of free drinking. Quite honestly, I couldn’t believe it when I heard it myself (the financial people promise me it won’t bankrupt us).
“Wait” you may say “this sounds great, but I drink my coffee in the wee small hours of the morning and you don’t open until 11??!!”
Got that covered. Starting the 19th of October The Red Trolley will be opening at 7am on weekdays, just in time for your first jolt of caffeine.
You already knew we had the best coffee (Novo) and now to top it off we have our own private label collection of whole leaf teas. I’ll give you all the details in the next post. Meanwhile, SIGN UP FOR THE NEWSLETTER, (www.theredtrolley.com) so that you too can save a week’s worth of coffee coinage.
Beginning Tuesday, Oct. 6th The Red Trolley will introduce $2 T-Dog Tuesdays.It’s really pretty self explanatory but here’s the scoop anyway…all day on Tuesdays, from open to close, our delicious T-Dogs will be a mere $2!!!
The best part is that this is food that you can feel good about eating (or feeding your children as the case may be).Hot Dogs usually need to be treated as an occasional treat, between the high fat content, the nitrates and the largely questionable ingredients that go into your typical dog.Honestly, I’ve tried to look at this from several angles (because I strive not to be biased and this is a bold statement I’m about to make) but our hot dogs can actually qualify as GOOD FOR YOU.I know many of you are rolling your eyes right now but let’s break it down…
Our Buffalo Bill—Naturally low in fat, 100% pure buffalo with no additives, no antibiotics, hormones, steroids or other fishy stuff and of course no nitrates or nitrites (ever!)
So here we have a good pure lean protein.
100% whole wheat bun.
So here we have lots of fiber.
Side salad of something seasonal that came directly from the earth (lately it’s been our yummy watermelon feta salad).
So here we have untold nutrients, more fiber and lots of flavor.
Right?Am I right??This is actually a good meal.
(believe me, I feel good about feeding it to my kids ALOT)
So now with a view toward full disclosure, our T-Dog or Spicy Highland or Ballpark Brat is going to be slightly higher in fat than the Buffalo Bill.The Bird, however, would actually be slightly lower.We’ve made a concerted effort to find the highest quality meat available because, while I’ve always thought that hot dogs were fun, I’ve also thought they were pretty scary.
Isn’t it time we gave the hot dog a chance to reach its full potential?
Oh yeah, see you on $2 T-Dog Tuesday.
Might as well eat for cheap while you’re eating healthy.
I’ve tasted Georgia peaches. I’m pretty sure those Georgia peach growers hired a really good PR firm because anyone, anyone who pits (get it? pits?) a Georgia peach against a Colorado grown peach knows that nothing beats our peaches. Those of you that have tasted it know that nothing beats the Red Trolley’s Colorado peach sorbetto.
Last year we sourced our peaches just about as local as you can get (any local-er and they would have grown in the parking lot). They came from a peach tree on Vrain St. in the Highlands Neighborhood. This year, increased volume has led to an increased need; the lovely little peach tree on Vrain St. was no longer enough. We went looking for a Palisade Peach farm that could sufficiently fulfill our peach fix. Today, all our needs were met.
This morning we unloaded 800 (that’s right, eight hundred) pounds of beautiful Palisade peaches from the Talbott Family farm. The Talbotts have been growing peaches for 5 generations—from what I’ve tasted today they clearly know how to grow a delicious peach. The Red Trolley is buzzing with the sounds and smells of fresh peach everything from gelatos, sorbettos and ice creams to jams and cobblers.
Summer is not over yet, head on over to the Trolley and get some, while the getting’s good!
Had an interesting experience last week when someone came into the store and wanted to sell us their ice cream and gelato base. It was enticing because it would have cut our costs by about 1/3. They claimed to be all natural, ALL NATURAL was plastered all over their marketing materials, they were local, and everything seemed perfect. I did, however, ask to look at the ingredient list.
MONO AND DI-GLYCERIDES caught my attention as something that was not currently in our base. As most of you know, we are dead serious about our commitment to serving real, all natural products in our store. We are committed to real food because we believe that real food tastes better; its origins are easily traced, it has been minimally processed and it has NEVER been fiddled with in a lab. With this criterion Mono and Di-glycerides threw up a HUGE red flag.
Opinions on the internet ranged from “they are harmless” to “mono-diglycerides are nothing more than hydrogenated oils”. The internet swims with opinions, fortunately, facts can be found if you dig hard enough. The fact is that mono and diglycerides are manufactured at the molecular level in a lab. They are used largely in highly processed and packaged foods to, among other things, “improve loaf volume, and create a smooth, soft crumb.” Think Twinkies.
The most important fact is that my Grandmother would not have put mono and diglycerides in her ice cream and we’re not going to put it in ours.
Had an interesting experience last week when someone came into the store and wanted to sell us their ice cream and gelato base. It was enticing because it would have cut our costs by about 1/3. They claimed to be all natural, ALL NATURAL was plastered all over their marketing materials, they were local, and everything seemed perfect. I did, however, ask to look at the ingredient list.
