Seattle Froyo Update

 

Fro-yo girl here. About 12 years ago, I used to visit Seattle regularly, and I visited most of the froyo shops there. When I first started visiting, there were a few local shops like Crazy Cherry (inspired by Pinkberry), Utopia, Café Koi, and old-school Shy Giant at Pike Place Market. Boba shops in the U District like Citra started offering froyo. Cafes like Jewel Box Café and Sprout also started offering froyo.

I witnessed the rise of the self-serve froyo shops in Seattle, with the opening of multiple branches of Menchie’s and Yogurtland. Menchie’s was the first to open a self-serve shop in Seattle back in 2010. Yogurtland had six locations in Washington and they’ve all closed. Menchie’s has 21 locations in Washington, with two of these in Seattle proper.

Quite a few froyo shops have opened and closed since that time, including Zoeyogurt, Cool Whirled, Yeti Yogurt, Refresh, Red Mango, TCBY, Chill, Froyo Fresh, etc. Some froyo shops that closed were replaced by other froyo shops (e.g., Yogurtland became Refresh, Menchie’s University Village became Chill).

YoYo and CoCo opened in Wallingford in 2022. It was the first shop in the US that offered froyo cubes, a trend that started in China. It was open for a year. Interestingly, another yogurt cube shop opened in Bellevue in 2023. It’s called Lucky Cube.

Current Froyo Shops

• Menchie’s Queen Anne, 2101 Queen Anne Ave North
• Menchie’s Admiral, 2620 California Ave SW, Ste 400
• Shy Giant, 1500 Pike Pl #16, Seattle, WA 98101

Hellenika Cultured Creamery, 1920a Pike Pl, Seattle, WA 98101, offers gelato style scoopable cultured gelato, from the family that founded Ellenos. But they do not call their product froyo.

For a city with a population of 757,992 in 2024, that’s not many froyo shops. 

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.

Fro-yo Seattle Report: The Invasion of the Chains

Fro-yo girl here. There’s been quite a bit of fro-yo activity since my visit to Seattle last fall. Self-serve fro-yo has taken off in a big way. Yogurtland and Menchie’s are staking their claim on various neighborhoods.

* Current Seattle area YL locations: Capitol Hill, Wallingford, University Village, Bellevue. Coming soon to Redmond and Kent.
* Current Seattle area Menchie’s locations: Queen Anne, University Village, West Seattle, Vancouver, Federal Way, Lynnwood. Coming soon to Kirkland, Bellingham, Puyallup and Magnolia Village (Seattle).

For some reason the Yogurtland locations seemed more accessible and closer to various colleges and universities. I never made it to West Seattle to see the Menchie’s there. I love how Yogurtland's Wallingford location is right next to a teriyaki restaurant. So Seattle!

Other self-serve fro-yo shops in Seattle include Zoeyogurt in Greenlake and Froyo Fresh in the Columbia Center downtown. Cool Whirled was a self-serve fro-yo shop that didn’t last long in the Fremont neighborhood. It’s the golden age of self-serve fro-yo in Seattle.

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

Fro-yo Seattle report: Self-serve fro-yo

Fro-yo girl here. I've returned to Seattle looking for fro-yo. Since my last visit back March of this year, self-serve fro-yo has really taken hold of the city. Judging from the crowds, it was something that Seattle residents really desired.

Self-serve fro-yo timeline:
* December 2010: Menchie's opens in Queen Anne, offers 14 fro-yo flavors a day, 43 cents an ounce
* March 2011: zoeyogurt opens in Green Lake
* April 2011: Yogurtland opens in Capitol Hill, offers 16 fro-yo flavors a day, 35 cents an ounce


It was very interesting to observe the patrons at these self-serve fro-yo shops. I noticed that their self-serve creations looked pretty awful. They don't have swirling skills yet but I'm sure they'll learn quickly. If their market follows what I've seen elsewhere, some full serve fro-yo shops are going to convert to self-serve soon and Tutti Frutti shops will pop up (seemingly) overnight. Maybe the prices will decline (Menchie's and Yogurtland charge more here).

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

* MENCHIE'S:2101 Queen Anne Ave N, Seattle, WA
* ZOEYOGURT: 6900 E Green Lake Way N, Seattle, WA
* YOGURTLAND: 1620 Broadway Suite D, Seattle, WA