Over the weekend, I picked up some rag in the grocery store and read that Leonardo DiCaprio has a Red Mango machine in his office and home. That’s rich—a franchise outlet costs about $275,000. I’m a little late to the fro-yo wars, it’s sorta Sarah’s beat here on SideDish, but I can’t quit bumping into new ones. Last week I discovered two that have yet to open–Yogurt By Me in North Dallas behind the Galleria, and Yogen Fru in Preston Royal (across from TJ’s).
This morning I found FOUR e-mails marked ! “FW: ***PRESS RELEASE*** Frozen Yogurt coming to HP Village! Menchie’s, all the rage in LA (Hi, Paris!) is coming to Highland Park Village. The deal at Menchie’s is self-serve (how perfect for HPV) and “What’s your mix?” You can let your freak yogurt mix fly—I understand you can buy a t-shirt with your custom concoction printed on the front or back (or both!). At Menchie’s you mix, weigh, pay.
Like Starbuck’s, yogurt shops now offer groovy interiors, WiFi, custom-designable products and blends, and blogs. Also like Starbuck’s which basically sells coffee three gazillion ways, the base product in all fro-yo concepts is frozen yogurt which, according to several in the yogurt know, all come from the same mix. I guess you could say, like the product, yogurt shops have to create live and active cultures to get attention.
