Smooth Operators

As summer heats up, Birmingham is keeping it cool with a hearty helping of frozen yogurt. Already home to a handful of recently-opened yogurt bars, Birmingham and its surrounding areas are projected to host more than a dozen additional locations within the year. Yogurt consumption has increased more than any other food in the last decade, according to NPD Group Market Researcher Harry Balzer in an interview with National Public Radio. It has a “health halo surrounding it,” and it defines what Americans want from the food supply, he says.

No need to take his word for it. History tells the story. Since the national frozen yogurt brand TCBY was founded in 1981, the popularity of frozen yogurt has steadily climbed. In 1980, according to a study done by FlexNews, it was a 300 million dollar industry in the United States. Just 25 years later, it was worth 3.5 billion.

Furthermore, in a study conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research, individual ice cream consumption dropped an average of 2.3 pounds per year between 1998 and 2007, while people ate an average of 5.6 pounds more yogurt in the same period.

Many California-based companies started jumping on the yogurt wagon, and within the last five years, brands like PinkBerry, Red Mango and Yogurtland began cropping over all over the West Coast. “There’s one on every corner. Just all kinds of folks out there,” says Lucas Gambino, investor in Homewood’s soon-to-open branch of the national brand, Tutti Frutti. “Over time, the little red map dots have started moving east. People went out to California to see what kind of success these folks are having.”

That’s just what David Kahn, owner of Yogurt Mountain did. After witnessing the success of over 50 self-serve yogurt stores, he sent his nephew, Aaron, to work in a couple of chains to learn the business. He then launched their own brand—the first yogurt bar to emerge on the local scene—last November.

Kahn sees himself as a real market leader or “market maker,” and has plans to open half a dozen shops in the Birmingham area in the future. “This is the new Starbucks,” he says. What began with Yogurt Mountain has multiplied into a trail of similar stores in every direction. Yogurt contains probiotics and live active cultures, offering conscious customers healthier choices, but that’s not its only appeal. There’s something about self-serving that also caters to the American way, Gambino says. “You come in and you immediately take action and do what you came in there do to. You’re in there to buy yogurt, not stand in line. You go, you can get your cup, you can then identify what you want, create it on the fly, create your own concoction. If I’m standing there trying to tell the lady that I want more M and M’s, I may be embarrassed to say, ‘No, put a little more on there actually. Even more than that.’ [Our way], you don’t have to worry about what anybody’s thinking. You don’t have to talk to anybody. You could be on your cell phone the whole time. You just go in there and do your thing, and the only interaction and delay you have is when you plop [your order] on the weigh scale and the guy takes your money.”

The individualization of the process is just one possible reason that these shops have become so popular. The idea is an epidemic. In an interview about his book, The Tipping Point, author Malcolm Gladwell said, “I’m convinced that ideas and behaviors and new products move through a population very much like a disease does. This isn’t just a metaphor, in other words. I’m talking about a very literal analogy. Ideas can be contagious in exactly the same way that a virus is.”

But, like viruses, idea epidemics quickly come and go. If it’s not pie taking over as the new cupcake, it’s brown becoming the new black. “I don’t know how long this thing will last,” says Gambino.

“TCBY has been around for twenty years and you could liken this to a lot of things that have taken the industry by storm and were successful. Movie rental stores came and lasted for twenty years. Now they’re seemingly gone, but they were good while they were here, and a lot of people did well. I don’t think this is anything any of us are imagining doing in our retirement days—you know, running a yogurt store, but hopefully, in the interim period, there’s enough demand to keep us going and we’ll ride the wave as long as it lasts.”

Yogurt Mountain
Open since November 2009
Currently located on Highway 280 in the
Cahaba Village Plaza Hours: Sun-Thurs 11a.m.-11p.m.,
Fri-Sat 11 a.m.-midnight.
Phone: 970-7778
www.yogurtmountain.com
Price: $.45/oz
Yogurt Flavors: 16
Toppings: 50

Treat-Your-Self
Open since December of 2009
Currently located on Main Street in Patton Creek in Hoover
Hours: Sun-Thurs noon-10 p.m.,
Fri-Sat noon-11 p.m.
Phone: 453-9294
www.treat-your-self.com
Price: $.45/oz
Yogurt Flavors: 4
Custard Flavors: 2
Toppings: 75

Yogurt Lab
Open since June 2010
Currently located on Highway 31 in Vestavia Hills
Hours: Mon-Thurs 11 a.m.-10 p.m.,
Fr-Sat 11 a.m.-11 p.m.
Phone: 874-6660
www.visityogurtlab.com
Price: $ .45/oz
Yogurt Flavors: 16
Toppings: over 40, including some from local
companies, Ashley Mac’s and Big Sky Bakery

32°
Open since June 2010 at The Summit
(and in August in Crestline Village)
Hours: Mon-Thurs 11 a.m.-10 p.m.,
Fri-Sat 11 a.m.-11 p.m.
www.32yogurt.com
Price: $ .45/oz
Yogurt Flavors: 14
Toppings: 38-50, including 8-10 fresh fruit
toppings and 30-40 dry toppings

Tutti Frutti
To Open Late July 2010 in Homewood’s
SoHo Square
Hours: Mon-Thurs 7 a.m.-10 p.m.,
Fri-Sat 7 a.m.-11 p.m., Sun noon-9 p.m.
http://tfyogurt.net
Yogurt Flavors: 16
Toppings: 54, including 18 wet and 36 dry
Also to feature OhMyBuns: a butter centered
pastry served with a variety of coffees and teas

Cory Bordonaro writes about food and other topics for Birmingham Weekly. Send your comments to editor@bhamweekly.com.