I know, I know. You’ve had enough of the frozen yogurt craze. If you hear “froyo” or some other truncated name for that unsatisfactory substitute for ice cream you’re going to lose your mind. However, before you throw this newspaper down and run away screaming, give me a chance to tell you about the best purveyor of frozen yogurt I have ever encountered: Yeti Yogurt. Started up only a month ago by business partners Jennfier Whitmore and Al Jiwani, Yeti Yogurt already has three stores open: one in Queen Anne, one on the Ave in the U-district and one in British Columbia. They also have plans to open up seven more stores in Washington and one in Canada.
When you walk into the Yeti Yogurt on the Ave, you are immediately greeted by warm lighting, brightly colored walls and the smell of sugary deliciousness. Another plus is the temperature, which is warm enough that you want to actually stay in Yeti Yogurt to enjoy your froyo, unlike most places where the store is cold enough that everybody makes a beeline for the door after they buy their yogurt. Or they would, if their feet weren’t frozen to the floor.
“One of the things we wanted to do when we set out to start our business, was to have lots of choices…[and] places for people to sit, places people can linger…to give adults and kids a place to go.” said Jiwani.
Clearly they want people to stay and enjoy their store, because Yeti Yogurt has plenty of comfortable seating, tables and even a fireplace. Yes, a fireplace.
Putting aside for a moment the fact that the store is just a place you’d probably want to hang out at, let me tell you about the frozen yogurt. Not only do they have 36 rotating flavors priced at 45 cents per ounce to choose from, they also have no-sugar-added flavors and non-dairy sorbet for those with special dietary needs. My two personal favorite flavors were the peanut butter cup and Freddy’s Favorite, a salted caramel flavor.
After you’ve spent a couple hours trying to decide which flavors to choose from the myriad options, you can head over to the toppings bar, where you can spend the rest of your day picking what to garnish your froyo with. I have never seen so many options. 48 toppings alongside an additional 16 fruit toppings, they even have wafers.
In addition to all of this awesomeness, Yeti Yogurt has free Wi-Fi and is open until 2 a.m. I don’t know about you, but I often desire frozen yogurt in the wee hours. Now, this is a thing I can attain without resorting to putting Yoplait in the freezer.
And for the fun-loving, thrill seeking spirit in all of us, Whitmore and Jiwani have set forth what they call the “Yeti Challange”.
“The Yeti Challenge is to eat 32 ounces of yogurt in five minutes, and if you do that you get your picture on our wall, a t-shirt stating you ‘Survived the Yeti Challenge’, and your yogurt for free.” Whitmore has clarified it must indeed be 32 ounces of yogurt, a bowl of only toppings does not qualify. So are you feeling up to the challenge? My vote is you go take the challenge, or at very least try out Yeti Yogurt…but eating two pounds would be pretty epic.
