Geraldine Kim & Joshua Gertzen

Founding Owners, Frozen Matter

Denver

Gerry and Josh are the founding owners of Frozen Matter, a dairy plant and frozen dessert parlor in Uptown Denver, and Retrograde, a craft cocktail lounge located in the "walk-in freezer" of Frozen Matter. Having lived in San Francisco before Denver, Gerry was spoiled with some amazing ice creams. When a lawyering job moved Gerry to Denver, she found herself in a city with a gap in craft ice cream offerings. Having developed a serious side passion in dessert making, she knew should could do something about it. Through a mutual friend, she met Josh who had moved to Denver for a job at a software consulting firm. They hit it off, ate a lot of ice cream together and started dreaming of a sweeter life—one full of ice cream and happy people, creativity and working with their hands, a life in which, as business owners, they could have greater control. With Josh’s side interest in space science, general geekery and ability to build anything (growing up in Alaska, he and his Dad built their house) combining with Gerry’s culinary interest, the Frozen Matter cow-to-cone concept was born. In the full spirit of great escapes, the Retrograde concept was born shortly thereafter. Josh and Gerry dropped out of their desk jobs and opened Frozen Matter and Retrograde in 2016. With a lot of sweat and luck, Gerry and Josh have been named Rising Stars for Frozen Matter by StarChefs, Retrograde was named Bar of the Year in 2016 by EaterDenver readers and 2017 Top of Town Cocktail Menu in 2017 by 5280 Magazine.

Before finding themselves in a world of rainbow sprinkles, Josh was a software engineer with eighteen years of experience in process automation, website development and online marketing. In addition, he founded various technology start-ups and managed several software development teams. Gerry was a regulatory attorney, representing the California Public Utilities Commission and then Xcel Energy. She graduated from the University of Southern California with studies focused on art history and economics and the Santa Clara University of Law. Josh and Gerry are both graduates of the 123r d class of the Penn State Ice Cream Program, the oldest ice cream school in the world (yes, you can study ice cream).