San Marino Gets Its First Froyo Shop, Swirlz Soft Serve Parlor is Now Open

Fro-yo girl here. This is embarrassing; a froyo shop opened in my area and I didn’t know about it until a month later. Swirlz Soft Serve Parlor (2136 Huntington Dr., San Marino, CA 91108) replaced Quenelle, the ice cream shop that sometimes had froyo flavors. Swirlz is described as “a frozen dessert parlor featuring organic and vegan options + various custards, gelato, and sorbets.”

They change flavors on Tuesdays and Thursdays and the flavors can be found on their website and on Twitter, @swirlzsoftserve. The flavors that I encountered during my visit were different from the ones posted on their website on 4/18 and on Twitter. I guess the flavors hadn’t been updated. It’s a little frustrating to not find updated flavors because it should be easy to send a tweet.

The shop is small with few signs. There are eight self-serve flavors a day, a wall of toppings, refrigerated toppings and organic sauces. Some of the toppings were organic. They had mochi, cheesecake, popping boba, jellies, fresh fruit, cookie dough, brownies, nuts, cereal, sprinkles, different kinds of chocolate chips, candy, nuts, etc. A few toppings were unusual: soybeans, quinoa, and sunflower seeds. I didn’t see the price anywhere and I didn’t receive a receipt, but apparently it’s 59 cents an ounce. They also have pre-packed quarts.

Available flavors:

• Lemon custard: Creamier and thicker but tasted like lemon candy
• Raspberry gelato
• Vanilla ice cream (organic)
• Chocolate froyo (organic)
• Coffee froyo (organic): On the icy side but it did have a strong coffee flavor and wasn’t super sweet
• Tart froyo (organic): Not tart/tangy and pretty bland, icy
• Tropical coconut milk
• Dole whip pineapple

There was only one table inside but there were a couple of tables outside. They had a case for soft pretzels but no soft pretzels.

Ask to join the reward program. Once you spend $50, you get $5 off.

The new shop has more options for people with dietary restrictions. They always have vegan soft serve. So far the flavors they’ve had haven’t caught my eye and the tart froyo needs improvement.

San Marino is such a small area (2014 population of 13,423, over half of residents are Asian) with only a few businesses that it didn’t even strike me as strange that it didn’t have a froyo shop. There are plenty of froyo shops in the surrounding areas of South Pasadena, Pasadena, Alhambra and San Gabriel.

3 out of 5 stars.

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.

Frozen Yogurt at Quenelle

Fro-yo girl here. Quenelle, an ice cream shop known for its creative and Asian flavors, first opened in Burbank in 2013. The owners, John and Christina Park, opened Ice Que, a shaved ice/snow dessert house, in Alhambra last year. Quenelle’s second shop has just opened in San Marino.

The man behind the scoop, John Park was the pastry chef at Lukshon and has worked in the dessert kitchens of Providence, XIV and Water Grill. Quenelle an Marino features Park’s housemade ice cream(16 flavors, including non-dairy varieties), popsicles, pies and baked goods. Yes, he bakes cookies, brownies, bars and pies. You can top your ice cream with (mostly) housemade toppings like bourbon caramel, graham cracker streusel, caramelized rice and candied pecans.

Some scoop flavors are always available, like customer favorite, blueberry pie. Once in awhile, but not very often, frozen Greek yogurt shows up in scoopable and stick form. Greek froyo flavors include orange, kaffir lime, and cucumber.

The orange Greek frozen yogurt tasted like orange juice sherbet and was noticeably icier than their ice cream. I was disappointed by the lack of yogurt tang/yogurt flavor. The orange frozen yogurt I’ve made at home had more yogurt flavor and a thicker, creamier texture.

The misugaru (roasted grain) ice cream was much more interesting though the flavor was on the subtle side. The best thing I had was the blueberry snickerdoodle cookie – chewy, soft, slightly crispy with blueberry flavor explosions.

You can also get cold pressed juices at the San Marino location.

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

* QUENELLE: 2136 Huntington Dr., San Marino, CA 91108

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.