Thursday, February 25, 2021

San Gabriel Valley Froyo Guide & History: Arcadia

 



Fro-yo girl here. If you’re looking for froyo in Arcadia, CA, your options are Yogurtland or Ace Yogurt. Ace Yogurt (160 E Duarte Rd.) is your old school froyo shop that first opened in 1990. It’s counter-serve, located in an older strip mall and serves Dannon YoCream froyo, smoothies, shaved ice, froyo pie and fruit salad. They even have Styrofoam cups. Yogurtland Arcadia (633 W Duarte Rd.) opened back in February 2009 in the strip mall anchored by Arcadia Supermarket. It was 30 cents an ounce and self-serve back then. The last time I went there, it was 49 cents/oz.

There used to be many more froyo shops in Arcadia. It was an early froyo hot spot, particularly at Westfield Santa Anita. Westfield Santa Anita had three froyo shops: Tutti Frutti, Cefiore, SweetXO, and Nubi and the Asian buffet restaurant, Kirin Buffet, also offered self-serve froyo.

Here’s the list of former froyo shops in Arcadia.

  • Cefiore, 733 W Naomi Ave, Ste E, from 2008-2010: This branch was located in the same shopping center as Burlington Coat Factory and Daiso. The space is currently occupied by Lazy Bunny Tea House.
  • Cefiore, 400 S Baldwin Ave, D3, from 2007-2011: Located inside Westfield Santa Anita, this was a counter-serve shop with four tart flavors.
  • Nubi, 400 S Baldwin Ave, Ste 762-L, from 2009-2013: Located on the outside of Westfield Santa Anita food court, near Paris Baguette, this was a self-serve froyo shop. The space is currently occupied by Popbar. The same people own Ono Hawaiian BBQ.
  • PinGo Yogurt, 633 W Duarte Rd, opened at Arcadia Center in 2007, two years before Yogurtland opened there. I’m not sure when it closed. It took awhile for the shopping center to remove the PinGo sign.
  • Q Yogurt, 1220 Golden W Ave., from 2012-2019. Q Yogurt was in the food court by 99 Ranch. I remember seeing the cutout in the wall where the froyo machine used to be, but I never saw the froyo machine. I’m not sure when they stopped serving froyo but they changed the name of the shop to Q Boba. Maybe? They had froyo in 2012 and didn’t have it in 2014.
  • SweetXO, 400 S Baldwin Ave, Ste 1260, from 2013-2015: This was the last froyo shop to open at Westfield Santa Anita though it was much more than a froyo shop. SweetXO carried fun gifts, candy, ice cream, frozen popcorn, cupcakes, brownies, etc. The froyo was self-serve and they had the largest toppings bar ever.
  • Tutti Frutti, 1108 S Baldwin Ave., from 2008-2010. This Tutti Frutti offered self-serve froyo in the same plaza as Din Tai Fung and JJ Bakery.
  • Tutti Frutti, 400 S Baldwin Ave, from 2012-2013: Tutti Frutti had a self-serve froyo kiosk in Westfield Santa Anita.
  • Yophoria, 411 E Huntington Dr, Ste 114, from 2010-2011. This self-serve froyo shop also sold soups, waffles, crepes, pancakes, smoothies, milkshakes, etc.

See I told you that Arcadia was once overflowing with froyo. You could even find it at 626 Night Market (some years).

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

Looking for more frozen yogurt news, discussion boards, and resources? Check out the International Frozen Yogurt Association website at http://internationalfrozenyogurt.com/. The IFYA is the independent voice of the frozen yogurt industry.

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