It was a Saturday, so Jesse Gordon was serving sorbet.
For months, he had been distributing free batches of homemade flavors like blueberry-ube, tamarindo, strawberry balsamic, and persimmon-black sesame. Crowds of 50-plus people were stopping by for no-charge scoops from his home in Englewood, and hundreds more followed along with “Sorbet and Destroy” on Instagram.
Even Gordon’s local letter carrier made it part of his route.
“I see his truck roll by, I get a scoop ready for him,” Gordon, 33, told Denverite.
But on the last Saturday of April, the letter carrier took his scoop and returned something unexpected: a letter addressed to Sorbet and Destroy.
“The second I saw that I knew what it was. (Sorbet and Destroy) is not a business, it's not registered as anything. It's literally just a handle and a sticker on the ice cream freezer that I randomly acquired,” Gordon said.
The letter was a notice of violation from Arapahoe County Public Health, accusing Gordon of “unlawfully operating a retail food establishment from a private home.”
It was the end of a sweet sensation — but maybe not forever.
What went down?
“You are hereby advised that the operation of a retail food establishment without a valid license from a private home is in violation of Colorado Revised Statute §§ 25-4-1606 and 25-4-1610(1)(b),” the notice reads.
Gordon started the operation last summer and took a break during the winter. He had just reopened for “season two” in March and had hosted three pop-ups when he got the notice.
“It was a community service, wholesome, neighborhood-driven pop-up, started from my living room,” Gordon said. “Just doing it for fun because I enjoy making things and giving it out to people.”
He also created an Instagram account for Sorbet and Destroy, which is a play on “skate and destroy," where he posted updates and announced upcoming flavors.
“Because it was a hobby, I was only making around eight to 12 liters, or around 40 or so portions, of sorbet on any given week. They would go by pretty quickly,” he said. “The entire pop-up at most would take two hours, often opening at 2 and shutting down before 4.”
“It was completely unexpected,” Gordon said.
The violation notice included screenshots taken from Gordon’s Instagram, labeled as “evidence of violation.”
“Well they say you know you're becoming successful when the haters start to show up,” Gordon told his roughly 700 Instagram followers.
Gordon’s loyal visitors included Englewood Councilmember Rick Somerson.
“Here is an individual trying to provide free sorbet, so a cease and desist feels extreme in terms of how it was delivered,” Somerson told Denverite.
Gordon's situation is unique, according to Dylan Garrison, an environmental health manager at Arapahoe County Public Health.
“I haven’t heard anything like that before, to be frank,” Garrison said. “That’s an unusual one for me.”
But, even if it’s free, sorbet still can’t be served without a valid license, he added.
Garrison said it’s “rare” to send cease-and-desist orders to food vendors. He said the public health department relies on people submitting complaints to shut down unlawful food vendors.
“I have a lot of theories on this, whether it be neighbors that were upset at the 50 to 70 people that would show up on a weekly basis or other businesses and similar markets that may have seen me as a competition, or potentially even someone with a personal motivation,” Gordon said. “Someone out there saw them, screenshotted them and sent them in to report me.”
It turns out he was right: a licensed vendor reported the pop-up, according to the Arapahoe County Public Health Department.
A change is coming
Colorado residents are allowed to make and sell certain foods from home under the state’s “cottage” food laws. But the current guidelines exclude foods like sorbet, which uses fresh fruit and vegetables and needs to be refrigerated.
However, state lawmakers passed the Tamale Act earlier this year, which expands those laws. The new guidelines will include refrigerated foods, potentially opening the door for a return of Sorbet and Destroy.
But the changes won’t take effect until Jan. 1, and Gordon wants to get going soon. He hopes that he can set up shop in a legit retail space at York Street Yards that a friend is opening in November.
“It seems rather unlikely that any reopening would be happening here in my home studio in Englewood,” Gordon said. “This summer, unless my attorney finds some really incredible loophole, it looks like the free sorbet is — pardon the pun — on ice.”
So, until then, his free sorbet says sor-bye.
