Have you visited The Milky Way? As of Wednesday, 2/28, Kathy and Scott Gilbert are serving up sweet treats, savory snacks, and tasty drinks from their new shop at 330 Main Street in Palisade!
Wait, wasn’t it supposed to be called something different? We’ll get into that, along with all the yummy treats they’re planning to serve up, the fun surprises in store, and lots more, on today’s episode.
Find The Milky Way on Instagram @themilkywaypalisade
Music by Romarecord1973 from Pixabay.
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Transcript:
Welcome to Postcards From Palisade, where we hear from the people who are shaping our slice of western Colorado. I’m Lisa McNamara.
Tomorrow, Wednesday the 28th of February, Kathy and Scott Gilbert will be one step closer to their goal of total Palisade dessert domination!
That’s because tomorrow is the opening day of their new, eagerly awaited dessert shop, The Milky Way. Wait, wasn’t it supposed to be called something different? We’ll get into that, along with all the tasty treats they’re planning to serve up, the fun surprises in store, and lots more, on today’s Postcard From Palisade.
LM: we last talked in May and you’ve been a little busy since then.
KG: Teensy bit. Teensy bit busy.
LM: A few things have happened.
KG: Few things. Finally got our permit to build out, and we’ve been building since we got our permit in, what, July? Because that took a little longer than we thought it would be.
SG: And there’s a saying when you do things like this that takes twice as long and costs twice as much. And we were well past that, but almost done.
KG: Very close.
LM: Still, I think in the grand scheme of things, I mean, to have done this much since July is a lot.
KG: Oh, it feels eternal.
LM: A lot of work.
KG: It just feels eternal. Everything is shiny and new. Whether we wanted it to be or not.
SG: This time last year we were in escrow to buy the building.
KG: We’re like, oh, we’ll be open by June. It’ll be so easy.
SG: Foolishly thinking we would just quickly flip it and open. But, there’s a lot of permitting and rules and time and just. Yeah, now we know what it takes and we’re not going to do it again.
LM: So it’s the day before opening. what are you going to serve? What’s the concept?
KG: So primarily gelato and all things gelato. you can do gelato in a latte. You can do gelato Yeah. You flavor your latte with gelato. A scoop in there and it makes it extra, extra creamy because it’s no calories. It’s totally healthy. So we’ll have the gelato and then we’ll have about 20 to 30 different kinds of loose leaf teas. We’ll be focusing on teas. And we’ll be selling the loose leaf teas. And then we’ll also be selling spices. And then for food, we’ll have quite a few breakfast items. We’ll have a breakfast frittata, gluten free. And what else are we having? Oatmeal, cold and regular. And then, mini pancakes. I’m very excited about these. There’s a fancy name for it. Have you seen them? Like the profiterol? I can never say it. Yeah, there’s a fancy name for it. But they’re little pancakes. And then you pimp them out with Nutella and butter and powdered sugar. And then if you really want to make it healthy, then you add fruit to balance. It’s all about balance. And then, for lunchtime, we’ll be doing a line of grilled cheese. Plus all the pastries, we’ll be carrying all kinds of pastries. and we will be carrying kulina lani in the pastry case. And you can buy loaves of bread here.
SG: Candy.
KG: Oh, yeah, candy. We’ll be doing candy too. We’ll be doing, Enstroms candy. And then we have another distributor where we’ll be doing the fancy candies you can buy in a little box. And then macaroons and
SG: cakes.
KG: Cakes.
LM: Oh, my God. So much good stuff.
KG: We’re aiming for dessert. And then we’ll have some fruit. We’ll have some fruit in the grab and go too, because balance.
SG: at its core, it’s a dessert shop, but it’s got a lot surrounding it to make it a you could have your whole meal here too. But if it’s a dessert shop theme.
KG: Because dessert is great. Life is worth dessert.
LM: Absolutely. So when we talked in May, this was going to be the sempre cafe.
SG that was the working title
LM: But now…
KG: that was our working title.
LM: now what’s the latest?
Electrician: is now a bad time?
LM: did I mention that there was a lot going on when we met? The electrician had just stopped by to hook up the sweet retro light fixture that was directly over the table where we had been sitting, causing us to move over to another part of the shop.
LM: All right, so we’ve relocated over to the counter. Okay. What were we talking about?
KG: I don’t know.
LM: Oh, the name.
KG: The name. It just wasn’t working.
SG: Well, the kids didn’t like it. I liked it.
KG: I didn’t like it. You’re the only one who liked it.
SG: So it became the working title.
KG: Yeah. It has to still say sempre cafe on all of the plans, because there’s no way the architect is going to change them at this point.
LM: Right.
KG: But it’s called the Milky Way
KG: the whole line of drink menus that we have, there’s some fun named things in there, like, what was it, the raspberry retrograde? What was the other one? The Armstrong.
SG: this kind of mid century, atomic age things started to develop, so the name was changed to reflect what it was becoming.
KG: Yeah, because you can’t change the shape of the building. The building is definitely mid century, and you can’t change that. So we leaned into it bigly. It all came together. We were a little skeptical at times. Like, is this the right choice? I’m not sure, but we’re committed, so let’s keep going.
SG: I always assume everything’s a mistake until proven otherwise.
KG: That is true.
LM: So Milky Way. Awesome menu. What are the hours going to be like?
KG: we’re going to be open as the market supports. So probably for the first month, we will be closed Monday and Tuesday just so we can get our bearings. But let’s see, so what? That would be Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday, 08:00 a.m.. to 06:00 p.m. And then Friday and Saturday open later. We’re just not sure it’s going to be kind of a work in progress.
SG: That’ll change as it gets warmer. as the town’s traffic flow gets back to the summer.
KG: The touristy. And people want ice cream more and gelato. Sorry, I didn’t say ice cream. People want gelato more when it’s not 28 degrees out.
LM: Right?
KG: It’s 80. Let’s have ice cream
LM: no I mean a scoop of gelato in a latte, that’s a winter treat.
KG: You can always just do an affogato too. Just do a little affogato, which is nice.
LM: Yeah, that’s a winter thing for sure.
KG: Again, no calories. But it’s really good gelato. It’s really, really good gelato.
SG: It’s distributed from Denver, but the company is actually from Italy.
KG: Yeah.
LM: So it’s the real deal.
KG: It is, excellent. It is truly excellent gelato. And we’re leading off with just scoops of gelato for starters. But then we’ll be branching out quickly into milkshakes with it. and then I like to call it gelato nachos. You take some scoops, and then you put cool toppings on it and sauce, and then you dip your little wafer chips and you’ve got nachos. And if you share it with a friend, it has no calories.
LM: There you go. This is going to be amazing. what’s the difference between gelato and ice cream?
KG: Gelato is a little bit warmer, kept at a warmer temperature, and it’s creamier. And it’s actually less calories I think.
SG: it’s richer.
KG: It’s richer. No, it actually is. but it’s richer. But it has less things in it, for lack of a better word. It’s more pure.
SG: It’s more dense.
KG: Yeah, it’s more dense.
LM: less air. that would be more dense.
KG: And it’s just so good. It’s really good. And we’ll have always on tap. We’ll always have one that’s a sorbet. So if anyone has a dairy and that will change. Our flavors will change all the time.
LM: of the things that you’re going to be serving, what’s your personal favorite?
KG: That’s a tough one. I mean, gelato, probably the hazelnut gelato, the hazelnut chocolate. That would be my favorite thing.
SG: Those who know us, for the coffee bus, and the ice cream truck, we will still have our usual line of coffee drinks. So I like the vanilla chai.
KG: You like the dirty chai.
SG: The dirty chai, yeah.
KG: And now we can get it sugar free. We have a distributor that we can get better chai from and have some more options, but there’s like a sugar free one, so less guilt. That’s his favorite drink though.
SG: Yeah. So we’ll still have everything that you were getting on the trucks too.
LM: And the vending machine. So the small art vending machine is here.
KG: Small art vending machine. And some more oddities in there. Some little odd things like trying to think, can I give that away? Some little retro toys that we grew up with and that sort of thing. Oh, I remember that. Oh, that’s so cool.
LM: You still going to have a local artist in there for some of the stuff?
KG: We will still be having some local artists. by the time this is broadcast, the pictures done by a local artist will be outside and she’ll be putting her stuff in the vending machine as well. And she’s done an amazing job on our art. I’m very excited about those.
SC: tell about the courtyard?
KG: Oh, yeah, the courtyard. Okay. Yeah, they’re starting that any moment. They came today to start it. So, we will have all outdoor seating as well. so it’ll be nice and covered and shady with a fountain and plants. And we’ll have, I don’t know how many seats out there. 15-20. More like lots of seating out there.
LM: Awesome.
KG: So we want this to be a fun place to hang out and enjoy yourself. That’s the goal. Trying to figure out how to put one of those, igloos that they have at the maverick out there in the winter. I really want one of those. They’re just so cool.
LM: Totally fits the theme too.
KG: That’s what I think
LM: it does. I wonder if that’s your patio.
KG: I wonder if that’s that would be dominic from spectrum
LM: your cable! Okay, what else do we definitely want to get? do you want to talk about any of, the components of the store? What should people get really excited about seeing or walking in?
KG: Well, besides the bathroom, the gelato case is lovely. what else?
SG: yeah, the gelato case we’re going to do. It’s going to be the sculpted look. It’s just nice to look at. It’s got the decorations.
KG: It will be pretty
LM: like the peaks and then the
KG: Yes. And you put little sample like, if it’s a strawberry gelato, you put cut strawberries on it. If it’s the hazelnut chocolate, you put Ferrer Rocher on it. You can do that too. So you can take a Ferrer Rocher and have it just pour onto the latte. The latte shots pour onto it and melt it. And then you can pour the whole thing onto the gelato. And it’s like inception affogato, I’m like all about that.
LM: Wow. Was it hard to find suppliers for any of the ingredients
KG: not really. Not really. I don’t think. I mean, equipment, yeah, but the suppliers, the gelato. No, we’ve got a really good company. We had to go, of course, field test it. It’s excellent.
SG: You haven’t mentioned the retail yet.
KG: Oh, yeah, we have retail. Sorry. There’s a lot going on. So we will have a small retail section. Not huge, just small. and we’ll have an entire line of spices and entire line of teas. And then retail themed that it’ll kind of change every month as we go. It’ll change like, we’re starting off with mid century modern just because it’s really fun. And I found some great products. And then as we get into the bee festival, we’ll have more of that. And then going into summer, more of that. That will change all the time. The retail, if you see it, it probably won’t be back. So kind of keep changing it all the time. Our Instagram wall. I love my Instagram wall.
LM: What’s this?
KG: That is at the end when you walk in, you will see a couch and two chairs, a nice little conversation area. And on the wall behind it, the decorations will change seasonally as well. So we highly encourage you to take a selfie at the Instagram wall and post it because social media is key. please tag us because we love attention. I like to see pictures, like we do the farmers market. And we’re incredibly busy, and there’s, like, no photo of us out there at all. Wonder how my bus looked, because I can’t get off and take a picture.
LM: Oh, my gosh. I can’t even get up close to it to order.
KG: Crazy, right?
LM: it’s so busy.
KG: Yeah, it’s crazy. But we’ll be doing the bus again next year in the same spot. So Sundays will be interesting.
LM: Yeah, Sundays will be wild.
KG: It’ll be fun, right?
SG: Yeah. The trucks will be events only with still a presence at the farmers market. but this will be kind of our anchor. And then go into events only on the trucks. And there’ll be plenty of events.
KG: Yes. But food truck life is hard. It’s really hard. Like, let me just take everything I might possibly need and put it in this tiny little space and then drive and hope that it doesn’t break down or blow up, but it’s fine. It all works.
SG: This store this building does not have a motor in it.
KG: No, I’m not mad about that at all.
LM: That’ll be nice.
SG: Will it start? Will it make it?
KG: You walk in and you turn on the lights and that’s it. You’re there. Do you want to pause or. Hi, Dominic. I got the text that your name is Dominic. So Wifi…
Cable guy: got you. What’s..
KG: Follow me.
Cable guy: I see you’re under a lot of construction right now.
SG: This is a little more chaotic.
KG: We weren’t expecting this much chaos today. There was chaos this morning, but this is some next level now. Let’s do a podcast. It’ll be quiet in here. Sure.
LM: the last few months have brought visible changes to the facade of the Milky Way. The teal exterior has been repainted a rich cream color. Behind the papered over windows, even more changes have been taking place. Kathy and Scott have spent months working to renovate this former gallery space into a cafe. The interior walls are a calming powder blue, the trim is a bright white. Metal accents are a deep gold and the wooden countertops are stained a rich dark brown, coated with layers of thick epoxy. The floors are a smooth grey concrete.
Walking in, the first thing you’ll notice is the gelato case. Clean, sparkling, and filled with multicolored rectangles of deliciousness, it’s a bit overwhelming to behold.
Metal countertops behind the gelato case hold up a shiny new espresso machine, amongst other equipment. Swinging doors with charming circular windows lead into the kitchen.
Directly to the right is the retail section where Percy, the vending machine that had been posted up outside the Ordinary Fellow, now resides, along with other fun and delicious discoveries.
And then the rest of the space is filled with cream colored tables and chairs, with a back door leading out to a paved patio with more seating, covered with shade awnings. The overall feeling blends a sense of milky calm with a wild sugar rush in a totally unique way.
KG: I think the prettiest things in here, I have to say, I think the prettiest things are the countertop, the checkout counter with the rounded edge, with the brass pole, and then the kitchen doors. The kitchen doors are my favorite thing, I think.
LM: I agree.
SG: We’re getting good feedback on our open sign too.
KG: which is on. I think I’ll turn the open sign off.
SG: it was a bit of a risk because nobody does an open sign like that. But we wanted to do something different.
LM: And you’ll probably have a sign out front, too. Some sort of hanging sign or something
SG: like an aframe or something.
KG: I know what I want to do, but I don’t know if you’re going to like what I want to do. I wanted to have a mannequin, and I want to have the mannequin just say, like, hi. We’re open and holding a basket with the menus if they want to look at it.
SG: Let’s look in the town code.
KG: You’re hoping there’s a mannequin section that I can’t, please don’t let Kathy do that. They have the robot ones that do like, they wave and they move and it’s a little creepy. I won’t do that. Mostly because I don’t have power right there. Otherwise I would.
LM: yet
KG: Oh, bathroom. The bathroom is very unique. That’s all I’m going to say. You’re going to want to see the bathroom. I’m very proud of it.
LM: that’s all
KG: That’s all I’m going to say. It has lots of space.
SG: It ended up being bigger than the kitchen.
KG: Yeah, it actually did
SG: by code. So we might as well use it.
KG: We might as well decorate it. Extremely decorated. We’ll go with that. Let’s let that be a surprise.
LM: I’m not going to say anything.
KG: Not going to say anything till they see it.
LM: Okay. That’s a fun surprise. I feel like you have a lot of fun little surprises and kind of interesting and fun things for people to find.
KG: The goal is to find something new every time you come in to see something new.
SG: And we want to revolve things around. So it is new not every day, but for every season.
KG: the goal is to have a lot of events here during the week. In the summer, Friday, Saturday. We’re just trying to survive. We’re all just trying to survive tourist season. But we want to do some events here that are just fun for the town people. Ooh let’s do a we talked about a couple of wineries, like doing a wine gelato pairing one night. Doesn’t that sound fancy?
LM: Wonderful.
KG: And then we’ll do game nights and trivia nights and just fun. We just want to have fun. because this is kind of a fun place.
LM: And that’s kind of what’s missing too, because there’s a lot of music Friday Saturdays, which I’m not complaining about I love it, very happy.
KG: Right. It’s great but when you’re industry. You can’t go and do that. We’ll be here.
LM: But that’s already kind of going on and drawing people away. So it makes sense to during the week when there’s less to do, when locals are like, I’m bored, I’m off work I want to do something fun.
KG: especially in the winter.
LM: yes, that would be cool.
KG: January and February are hard.
LM: What’s your pitch to get people to come in here? What are you going to tell them?
KG: god you put the pressure on me like that. fun treats. Fun experience. Something palisade has never seen before. The style has never been seen here before.
SG: Our tagline is you are here.
KG: You are here. You’re at the Milky Way. So you are here.
SG: We’ll see you here.
KG: We’ll see you here.
LM: See you at the Milky Way! 330 Main Street, Palisade. And don’t forget to tag those Instagram wall photos and share the love. But please, save me some of that chocolate hazelnut gelato!
Thanks for listening. With love, from Palisade.