caliyogurt introducing ‘frozen yogurt icecream’ to saturated downtown market
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Two questions instantly come to mind: 1) How many variations of the healthy fro-yo concept exist? and 2) Can Downtown support them all?
With at least three yogurt shops on the horizon — Yogurberry, CeFiore #2 and Cantaloop #2 — and several others already enlarging waistlines throughout Little Tokyo, there seems to be no end to the gluttonous movement.
Downtown’s newest indulgence, being passed off as “frozen yogurt icecream,” is Caliyogurt — a smaller Pinkberry-esque chain with three existing locations in Burbank, Torrance and Florida.
The business will take over the compact retail space inside the South Park Lofts previously occupied by The Bishop Coffee & Gourmet shop, which closed last year after the opening of Ralphs siphoned off its customer base.
Tranquility Base and Gill’s Indian Restaurant are located on the same block of Grand Avenue between 8th and 9th. A newly placed “Coming Soon” banner on the storefront makes the announcement, but no interior work has begun.
11 comments
Great to hear a new place is opening there. Its bitter sweet for me because I really liked and would of preferred a coffee or gourmet shop, just like Bishop was.
Only time will tell, we will see.
So far ive had Baskin Robbins (in Montebello), Pinkberry, Cefiore, Cantaloop and of course Cold Stone Creamery.
I did hear that Pinkberry is opening up a store in Norwalk,CA. soon
^ At this time, you got to hope that any store in that or a similar location in downtown will lure enough business to stay in business.
Through the years I’ve visited quite a few of the various suburbs throughout the LA basin and beyond, and notice that many of them have, and somehow manage to support, a surprisingly large number of small, mom-and-pop type of retail establishments.
I can think of dozens and dozens of non-chain stores situated along streets in towns like Garden Grove, Artesia, Westminster or, to the north, Thousand Oaks or Canoga Park that presumably attract enough customers to stay in the black and remain open for quite awhile. More surprisingly, the store space along such streets, even though they create a high level of competition, never have many or any retail vacancies.
Then there are the hundreds of small shops around the garment district, the jewelry district and along Broadway, not to mention in the produce district, that in terms of longevity or existence more closely resemble the suburban locations I just mentioned.
Now compare that with certain shops in downtown like the now-closed, short-lived Bishop Coffee or all the commercial spaces that have remained vacant for years on the groundfloor of buildings around 7th, Hope and Olive Streets. That means in some ways the retail situation in South Park and generally throughout the newer side of downtown has been an anomaly, by the standards of not just the typical smaller bedroom communities of southern Calif but also of even the districts on the eastern side of downtown LA.
I hope this business will catch on, but the location has to be a tough one. I don’t see a lot of people traveling over there for any reason.
geez i’m tired of all the faux-gurt places but glad for those that like it; me i would rather a nice homemade scoop shop like Mitchell’s of San Francisco or Fosselman’s. Even a Ben & Jerry’s would work for me (yes I know about the Cold Stone Cremery but I just want ice cream.. i don’t need it beaten to death and stuffed with stuff all the time).
Plus Cold Stone uses corn syrup in all their ice cream, in addition to a laundry list of other iffy ingredients. I’m reminded of that commercial back in the ’90s for Breyers (?) where they ask the kids to read a list of ingredients from “the other brand.”
“Polysorbate 80? Mono and …. mono and di-glycer-ides?”
i live in the building. while i welcome any new business and miss the bish dearly, i was really hoping for a taco bell
i’ve tried caliyogurt in torrance and it is deeeeelicious. i for one am excited…..let’s give it a try and support the new downtown business!
i’ll take almost anything over the gross b-shop
…yuck
the first downtown loft to get a ground floor Chick Fil-A will win the war on terror (terror=no chick fil-a)
The fro-yo craze in Downtown, noted on this post, is part of a regional and even nationwide trend with new and even independent fro-yo shops opening everywhere. This reminds me of the big fro-yo craze of the late 1908s (I’m dating mysefl) when I was a kid and popular chains like Penguins, TCBY, Golden Spoon, and Heidi’s, were the “new and hot trend.” Penguins seemed to be the most popular yogurt place with great flavor and topping choices. I would go there after school to enjoy flavored yogurt amidst an array of innovative toppings (innovative for back then), and would even take a quart to go and keep in the freezer at home. I remember the fro-yo places being especially popular on Friday or Saturday nights, following an outing to the movies.
Does anyone remember this late 80’s yogurt craze?
It’s great to see the fro-yo comeback with new and improved flavors (such as Pinkberry’s tart trio) and I welcome it Downtown.
What is yogurt ice cream? I don’t believe there is such a thing. I suspect their yogurt doesn’t qualify as true yogurt.