Back in Vogue
The vagaries of fashion — the ups and downs of hemlines and heel heights, the way colors and coiffures shift in and out of style — got nothin’ on the culinary world.
Consider frozen yogurt, for example. After roaring to every-corner status in the ’80s and ’90s, shops specializing in it had all but disappeared by the aughts.
They’re coming on strong once again, but with a couple of important differences from those of the big-hair era: Most of the newer ones are self-serve, and the flavors are decidedly less sweet, a reflection both of our increasingly sophisticated, more diverse tastes, and the real-yogurt flavor of frogurt’s ’70s roots.
"The frozen-yogurt trend got its legs back," said Kate Hemingway, vice president of marketing and communications for locally owned U-Swirl, "with the new flavor profiles of the pinkberries and Red Mangoes," two chains that pioneered the "tart" flavor trend that many others have picked up on, but that are not self-service.
Hemingway said Healthy Fast Food, the local company that owns the U-Swirl locations (and the former Evos fast-food restaurants in 12 Western states, recently rebranded Fresh and Fast) researched the market — particularly individually owned shops — in Southern California and settled on a business model that combined both the self-serve and new-flavor-profile elements.
Here’s how the self-serve shops work: You walk in the door and over to a display of paperboard bowls (U-Swirl also has a hand sanitizer near the entrance), then proceed to one in a line of frozen-yogurt machines. Find the flavor of your choice, pull the handle and take as much — or as little — as you want. You can have as many flavors as you want, and most have dual-flavor swirl capabilities.
Then you choose your toppings, maybe a syrup. When you’re finished, you put your bowl or bowls on a scale near the cash register and pay by the ounce.
The customer base, said Jordan Hill, manager of the TuttiBella at 7910 S. Rainbow Blvd., "is everybody, really. Girls are looking for the low-fat; kids just love it. And there’s not much sugar."
Ammarrette Hale, who was snacking at U-Swirl on Washington Avenue on a recent afternoon, said she and her husband and kids come in periodically. She likes the multitude of flavor choices, and the flexibility.
"You can put as little or as much of the fruits on there as you want," she said, "because you pay by weight. And I seem to get more for my money."
"These particular people, I love their service," she said. "At Easter they had an Easter bunny and gave out toys."
Heather Porter was making a first-time visit with daughters Olivia, 5, and Grace, 2, and said she’d come back, partly because "it’s a fun place." She said she had seen a U-Swirl commercial and knew her daughters, particularly, would love the concept.
While this isn’t meant to be a complete listing, we found much the same sort of operation at the various self-serve frozen-yogurt shops across the valley, but they all seem to have their own niches. With U-Swirl, Hemingway said, it’s the larger size of the store and coffee-shop atmosphere, with banquettes and ottomans and couches and tables and chairs.
"We want people to come and hang out," she said.
Their existing shops — at 305 N. Nellis Blvd., 7595 W. Washington Ave. and 790 Coronado Center Drive in Henderson — serve 16 flavors of yogurt at a time; a shop scheduled to open next month at Interstate 215 and North Decatur Boulevard will have 20. (Most popular: vanilla, cheesecake and strawberry.) They offer more than 60 toppings, plus syrups in squeeze bottles. It’s all 36 cents an ounce.
At TuttiBella (there’s another store at 10670 Southern Highlands Parkway), there’s a big emphasis on fruit. The 14 flavors change monthly or every other month, Hill said, and there are 11 fruits (mostly fresh, including raspberries, blackberries, watermelon and kiwi) plus fresh bananas on request, in addition to 30 other toppings, 10 syrups (including honey), mango powder and red bean powder, at 40 cents an ounce. Hill said the most popular flavors are the original house blend (which is tart), New York cheesecake, peanut butter, pomegranate and blueberry.
Patricia Derrick, president of Yogel’s, is a children’s book author (in addition to being a Montessori-school owner, general contractor and real-estate broker), so the emphasis at the stores at 9530 S. Eastern Ave. and 4220 S. Grand Canyon Drive is on kids’ books, which kids can browse and their parents can buy, if they wish.
There are eight rotating flavors, about 30 toppings (plus hot fudge and hot caramel) and waffle bowls, and a dairy theme is emphasized through wall art. But Derrick said she wanted Yogel’s to have an important difference:
"No lines," she said. At other shops, she noted, "you get in line, you get your yogurt, then in line for your toppings, then you have to pay. At Yogel’s we purposely eliminated that by having an island of 30 toppings in the middle. You go wherever you want to get your toppings." It’s 33 cents an ounce and the most popular flavors are Plain Jane (tart low-calorie, low-sugar), vanilla, chocolate and mango, she said.
The other major player in the market is Yogurtland, which has shops at 9516 W. Flamingo Road and in Town Square at 6605 Las Vegas Blvd. South. While Yogurtland representatives didn’t return calls for comment, a visit found 16 flavors including three vanillas (Arctic, Madagascar and French) and such whimsical choices as root-beer float in addition to the requisite peach tart and mango tart. Yogurtland also offers a water dispenser and cups.
The frozen yogurt shops seem to be avoiding the recession.
"The price makes it affordable for families," Derrick said. "People still need to have a little fun and get out a little bit. The concept is very family-oriented."
Porter said she, too, thought the price was worth it.
"It’s definitely comparable to everything else out there," she said. "For quality food, you have to pay a little bit extra."
Contact reporter Heidi Knapp Rinella at hrinella@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0474.
