It has been estimated that there are more than 20,000 expat Puebloans who now call the metro area home. It would also be a safe bet that the majority of them have stopped at Nick’s Dairy Creme. Depending on which direction you’re headed, it’s either as you start over the 8th Street Bridge or at the end. Either way, you can’t miss it.
Pueblo natives Ieshia and husband David Jiron have embarked on a journey that they hope will make Puebloans happy for a long time to come. In late summer, they took over a business that has been a part of their lives going back to childhood.
For the native east siders, it wasn’t just owning a business—even one with such a nostalgic tie to each—it was also investing in a part of town that too many others don’t see as an investment.
The idea that the landmark ice cream joint might shutter without a buyer was almost unimaginable to the pair. It was, after all, connective tissue to their childhoods. A little push from their realtor, Jeff Biddle, sealed the deal. “You and David,” he said, “would be the best people to buy this place—you grew up on the East Side,” Ieshia remembered.
While the deal was falling into place, Ieshia recalled, “We didn’t tell anyone, not even their children or their grandchildren.” Their lips were sealed. In fact, it was only days before getting the keys to the place that Ieshia finally told her father. “It was so exciting,” she said, “that we were actually buying an ice cream store.”
Nick’s, the name the business has had for decades, has been open through the city’s good and bad times. And the Jirons are as optimistic that under their ownership, it will be there for years to come.
Despite only weeks into their ownership, they’re already planning on changes to attract not only ice cream patrons but are working to bring in both the breakfast and lunchtime crowds.
On Monday, the Jirons began a whole new chapter to Nick’s. “We’re going to start opening up early,” to lure in the coffee crowd. Workers can now stop in beginning at 6:30 a.m. each morning for their ‘jolt of Joe.’ They’re also adding new coffee selections, including espressos, hot mocha drinks and for those wanting a little breakfast, pancakes. New menu items will appear as they figure out what might work. Incidentally, Solar Roast, a long-held staple at Nick’s will remain the house coffee.
Nick’s or various incarnations of the place have met east siders ice cream desires since Eisenhower was president. Back then, a small cone sold for a nickel or a dime. But as with everything, prices have gone up. But every Monday, a kids’ cone is a bargain at $1.50. The rest of the week, an ice cream cone at Nick’s will still be a relative bargain at three dollars and change.
Of course, it wouldn’t be an ice cream stop without choices. They sell all the usual items, the malts and shakes, of course. They even have something they call an apple pie a la mode selection that they swear will bring you back. But the crème de la crème, David says, is their banana split, a concoction they call the ‘Pikes Peak Split,’ made with chocolate ice cream and pineapple. But for those with an exotic taste, the Jirons recommend the ‘Eastside Shake,’ a specialty ice cream that features what they call a crunch cone.
While getting into the ice cream game at the precipice of winter may be a gamble, the Jirons think Pueblo will support them. And with new additions regularly coming on to the menu, people will have just one more reason to stop by.
But there’s another reason David, a former Marine and now retired letter carrier and Ieshia, who owns White Books, a bookkeeping firm, decided to take the plunge into ice cream game.
“I just wanted to see an investment in our city by local people,” he said. The east side of Pueblo, he said, has seen too many business come and go, including a Safeway that had served the community for decades. The east side is now a food dessert.
But Jiron and his wife, each of whom grew up within walking distance of the place, wanted to make certain that east side kids and kids from all across Pueblo, had a place like Nick’s for their own memories.
If you’re happen to be in Pueblo, David says, drop in. “It’s the best ice cream around.”
