Eskimo Brothers Is Hitting Denver's Streets With Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream

Chuck James admits that he's received flak about the name of his liquid nitrogen ice cream business, Eskimo Brothers. He says it honors the ice cream history of the Indigenous people of Alaska — akutaq is an ice cream made from animal fats and blubber, snow and fresh fruit. While some people are upset about cultural appropriation, others love the moniker, thinking it’s a reference to the urban dictionary term for two people who have slept with the same person. “It depends on who you ask,” James says. He’s planning to keep the name for now, but will consider changing it if the offense grows.

James launched Eskimo Brothers in March 2020, officially turning his ice cream-making hobby into a career. He'd been experimenting with using liquid nitrogen for years, ever since first playing around with the method as executive chef of downtown’s now-closed 1515 Restaurant.

After traveling and living around the world — primarily in Australia, but also Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, China and Japan — James, who grew up in Colorado, came back to the state but found that he “had maxed out Denver,” he shares. Though he hoped to land an executive chef position, he started bartending at Jack Rabbit Slims (which became Clove Pizzeria & Tap last year), a neighborhood bar and pizza joint near his house. He worked there for about four years, all the while planning his ice cream business.

He bought a trailer that was specially made locally with a higher ceiling to fit his six-foot-six frame, and slowly did most of the outfitting himself as he worked to transform it into a mobile ice cream shop. But the bartending pay was too good to leave Jack Rabbit Slims, and James says he realizes he was just sticking with what was comfortable.
Then COVID hit, and the bar crowd slowed down. He worked a few weeks on tips only, then gave up shifts to other bartenders. His ice cream truck was ready, and the COVID slowdown ended up giving him the “kick in the butt to get it started,” he says. “It was a blessing in disguise.”

Eskimo Brothers is a family business, supported by an inheritance from James’s father and investment from his brother. The choice to launch an ice cream truck rather than a brick-and-mortar shop was also inspired by them, in part, when James saw their faces light up one summer afternoon as a traditional neighborhood ice cream truck approached. “That’s why I started this business,” he says.

That, and the potential of the product. “I wanted to do something that’s a little different,” he says. “Old-world ice cream with new-world tech.”

At 1515 Restaurant, he would use liquid nitrogen not only for ice cream and sorbets, but also to solidify fats for savory meals. Liquid nitrogen ice cream is made by mixing the base — usually cream with different flavors — then using the gas to instantly freeze the concoction. The gas creates fog when it hits the cream and the air, creating a mad science lab-like experience, though James doesn't want the “new tech” part of the process to be the highlight.

Many liquid nitrogen ice cream shops in the States go the science lab-themed route, since oftentimes wearing goggles and gloves is part of the safety precautions. But James is going more for flavor than flair. During his time in Vietnam, China and Japan, he saw that rolled ice cream and liquid nitrogen frozen ice cream is part of everyday cuisine. “There it’s just normal,” he notes.
James has played with savory flavors, like horseradish, olive oil and black garlic, but those don’t sell well, so he mostly makes traditional flavors for the public, including Rocky Road, butter pecan and vanilla. The Cookie Monster — blue-dyed ice cream with crushed Oreos, Nutter Butters and chocolate chip cookies — is one of his most popular flavors. “I did it as a joke for the kids, and now I can’t take it off the menu,” he says. Less traditional but popular options include strawberry goat cheese, Nutella Oreo, honey lavender, Vietnamese-style coffee and mango sorbet.

Vanilla is James’s favorite, though, and he sees it as the true mark of an ice cream maker. “You can tell a good ice cream maker by their vanilla,” he says, adding that it’s about the texture as well as the flavor. James makes his vanilla with sea salt and Madagascar vanilla bean — no extracts.

His food trailer largely visits housing complexes, like a neighborhood truck without the singing bell. But he also participated in City Park Jazz last year and hopes to again this year. He will be at the 2022 Food Truck Carnival in Northglenn May 13-15 and is planning to do a pop-up at the Art District on Santa Fe's First Friday art walks this summer. His ice cream is also served at the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Wafels and Dinges in Park Meadows.

For a while, it was only James and one employee running the truck, but the business is growing: This month he hired a production manager.

For more information on Eskimo Brothers and to find the trailer's schedule, follow it on Instagram @eskimobros_nitro_icecream, check out its Facebook page or visit eskimobrosicecream.com.