Just a couple of years ago, nobody cared much about frozen yogurt. In New York, as frozen yogurt chains disappeared in the '90s, Tasti D-Lite proved an acceptable alternative. All over the city, folks queued out the door as they waited to pay far too much for what was essentially the ghost of an ice cream cone.

Then in 2005, a Korean-American woman, Shelly Hwang, opened Pinkberry, a small frozen yogurt store in Los Angeles, unknowingly launching a culinary revolution. It became a West Coast phenomenon. Lines spilled onto neighboring property, stores opened up and down the California coast, and New York saw its first of the franchise open on West 32nd St. in Little Korea-- before surfacing in Chelsea, the Upper East Side, SoHo, and Greenwich Village. And soon to open is a location on West 58th St. opposite the monolithic Time Warner Center-– a tiny space which might have a hard time accommodating all the time-crunched CNN employees who will miss major news if their break lasts too long. (Hopefully Anderson Cooper will get a VIP pass.)

Pinkberry had rightfully earned the nicknames "Crackberry" and "frozen heroin juice" among its unwavering disciples. Manhattan now has frozen yogurt stores in all neighborhoods, most of which bear some semblance to Pinkberry's aesthetic cuteness and trademark dairy product. Yet among all the outlets that surfaced, there would, naturally, be some ample offerings around town...and psychoPEDIA checked them out:

We started in Brooklyn, the Earth Mother's answer to Pinkberry lies on northern Fifth Avenue in Oko, a shop hidden under a canopy made of solar paneling. A treehugger's dream, virtually everything in Oko is made from something else: bamboo, potato starch, sunflower seeds. And with dried apricots and gooseberries offered among its toppings, Oko has cemented its place as the hippie's dairy merchant of choice. Oko's flavors include creamsicle, wildberry, and chocolate, all of which are all delicious.

On to Williamsburg, where /eks/ (pronounced "X") sits in a humble, spacious basement-level space that serves several flavors of fro-yo. Upon a recent visit, a mother and daughter looking as if they'd just arrived from Long Island, spent an ample amount of time deciding whether or not to go with original or coconut. The original flavor at /eks/ is the least sweet of all we sampled, which makes it a great snack after an intense softball game at nearby McCarren Park.

Red Mango has two locations, one of which sits directly across the street from Pinkberry on Bleecker Street, Wild West showdown-style. If Red Mango didn't serve an excellent, creamier alternative to Pinkberry, it surely wouldn't have survived this long. If you've got a hankering for a smoother, more dense texture–- like gelato or ice cream–- Red Mango's the place to go. It definitely fits more into the "dessert" category-- but only has 90 calories a serving.

Yogo Monster steps up the game with ... cones! As expected, their frozen yogurt retains a delightfully tougher, shell-like texture that keeps it from slithering out of your sugar cone. They also have blueberry yogurt, which maintains the especially tarty tang of their original flavor with the added bonus of berry goodness. All of these qualities made Yogo Monster– which stepped into the FroYo game relatively late– a strong contender.

Larry Forgione's Signature Café and 40 Carrots at Lord & Taylor and Bloomingdale's, respectively, both offer frozen yogurt in their indoor, windowless cafes. Each establishment's offerings are very good, as well, if you're looking for more of an alternative to ice cream. Lord & Taylor comes out on top in this case, thanks not only to their offerings of fresh cherry and rhubarb toppings, but also in the opportunity provided to bear witness to the frighteningly bitchy behavior exhibited toward the wait staff by the elderly Ladies Who Lunch (and shop). On the wall sit square pegs that radiate changing pastel colors, which further places one in a time machine where, as the patrons age, the decor remains about as contemporary as Epcot's imagining of the future circa 1985.

~Eliot Glazer


Go There:
/eks/, 488 Driggs Ave, Brooklyn. (718) 599-1706
Yogo Monster, 88 7th Ave, Brooklyn
Larry Forgione's Signature Cafe, 424 Fifth Ave, NYC. (212) 391-3015
40 Carrots, 1000 Third Ave, NYC. (212) 705-3085
Flurt, 284 3rd Ave, NYC. (212) 777-6177
Yolato, 168 W 27th St, NYC. (212) 366-5960


First photo by jrgts via Flickr
Third photo by Melissa Hom
All other photos by Eliot Glazer