Kim has even hired away former employees of Starbucks, the Coffee Bean and Peet’s to ensure the atmosphere is just right. Actual “scenes” are developing at some locations - partially because of their interior design, as well as customers’ increasing appreciation for the health benefits of eating yogurt over, say, drinking a Frappuccino. Fro-yo shops such as Pinkberry and Valley Village’s new Menchie’s are attracting crowds that previously hung out at Starbucks or the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. Their sleek, comfortable designs have as much in common with modern coffeehouses than ice cream parlors, inviting patrons to linger.Īlthough Southern California has already been through one frozen yogurt boom-and-bust cycle in the 1980s and ‘90s, things look different this time around. More than merely offering discerning palates a new flavor for their summertime desserts, these new stores are shaping themselves as social gathering places.
The chain’s particular brand of tart plain or green tea-flavored yogurt, sprinkled with healthful toppings such as fruits and almonds, has been dubbed “crackberry” by heavy users. Tart yogurt, the progenitor of the sweeter, ice cream-like varieties dispensed by myriad chains throughout the Southland, is on the rise, with local food bloggers and national publications such as Travel & Leisure weighing in on the Pinkberry phenomenon.
But the 31-year-old former investment banker is going to need more than DiCaprio’s blessing - or his competitor’s snafu (captured by a WABC-TV camera and since remedied) - to topple SoCal’s rapidly expanding Pinkberry chain and make a dent in the burgeoning market for tart-flavored frozen yogurt. Apparently, he heard about the rats at Pinkberry’s New York store.” “Now he wants a machine delivered to his temporary home in New York. “We just installed a machine in Leonardo DiCaprio’s office,” Dan Kim says from the South Korea-based firm’s office near LAX. FOR a guy who has yet to officially open his business in the U.S., the president of fledgling frozen yogurt company Red Mango is having a very good day.
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