Results tagged “pinkberry”

TCBY, or The Country's Best Yogurt, was once huge. All of a sudden "frozen yogurt" and "phenomenon" were used in the same sentence. It was nationwide Pinkberry-like insanity which predated Pinkberry. Then, of course, Pinkberry found hip neighborhoods. Today, we're right in the middle of Frozen Yogurt 3.0, and this model's an upgrade.

So today Pink's was giving away free hot dogs and now Pinkberry has announced four hours of free froyo, if you like it, that is. The Froyo craze has definitely ended--interestingly enough, cupcakes never lost their buzz--but add free to froyo and the lines will be there. "This Friday June 26th, everyone will invited to come in and receive a free small yogurt of one of Pinkberry's new summer flavors," says KNX1070."The giveaway will take place from 5 PM until 9 PM at participating stores."

       

OK, it's not really. It's Norwegian for "apple" but that is just too obvious. Èple's fun fruit stand at The Original Farmers Market on 3rd and Fairfax is definitely not limiting itself to pedestrian fruit like apples, though. Dragonfruit, cherimoyas, and a variety of other exotic fruits are the stars of the show. And employees assure us that in spite of being owned by Pinkberry, there are no mystery ingredients -- everyday they are peeling and chopping away to use only fresh fruit in their ice-blended drinks.

      

Frozen fads come and go in cycles. Two years ago Pinkberry was all the rage. Two decades ago TCBYs and Hogi Yogis ruled America’s urban and suburban landscape. Now will a simple frozen treat from our 50th state become the next big thing?

As we learned earlier, July is National Ice Cream Month, a legacy left to us by President Ronald Reagan in 1984. According to the International Ice Cream Association, “He recognized ice cream as a fun and nutritious food that is enjoyed by a full 90% of the nation's population.”

In the earlier days of the frozen yogurt craze, Yogurtland sprung up in Fullerton in February 2006. It was a success and so more stores opened in Hollywood, Long Beach, Little Tokyo, Sherman Oaks and many other Southern California locations and one in Cupertino up north. They even opened a location in Greenwich Village in New York City with plans for Vegas, Hawaii and Texas.

Any Angeleno worth their salt knows this city can be both bright and happy or sinister and dark by quick turns or subtle steps or shameless spirals. There is much to celebrate about LA and much to shy away from - which makes it the ideal city-as-character in many a writer's novel. A few new books are out that feature LA and they're on our radar to check out this month.

Pinkberry Pinkberry, the most hated and revered fro-yo chain. Are you pinkberry or are you stinkberry? Are you good for me or bad? There's been so much Pinkberry news lately, it's tough to keep track of it all.

Pinkberry, CeFiore, Red Mango, Lime Light, etc., etc., etc., have nothing on Menchie's Frozen Yogurt in Valley Village off Laurel Canyon between Magnolia and Chandler. At Menchie's, there's not just two flavors, there's ten. At Menchie's, you don't get served, you serve yourself. At Menchie's, there's not just a handful of toppings, there's more than thirty-five.

Ah, another glorious, status conscious, conspicuously consuming day. I've spent such a long time typing away on my Macbook Air, and now I'm just about ready to drive home to Beechwood Canyon where I'll spend the evening watching Bravo. Hotcha!

I first heard about Shaquille O'Neal in middle school. Back then, he was more of a playground rumor than a superstar. The first kid to learn about him tried to tell the rest of us.

Continue reading "Week Around the -Ists"

Photo by ~db~ via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr

We always encourage you to press that little recommend button at the bottom right hand corner of every post if you enjoyed it. For one, it tells us what you want more of here at LAist. So here's this week's three most recommended and commented posts, as recommended and talked up by you:

Photo by Here in Van Nuys via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr

I should hate Pinkberry for a million different reasons: what it does to neighborhoods, the mom & pops it shuts down in its wake, its fake-yogurty ingredients that are likely very, very bad for me and its off-putting, sour flavor that foodies abhor and I, strangely, adore. I know and I agree and I held out as long as I could.

An opinion piece in today's LA Times raises the issue of what seems to be the rampant Pinkberry-fication of many of our local neighborhoods, using recent food and retail closings and openings in the popular Larchmont Village as an example of how major-chain development affects the unique vibe of a given area.

Farm Boy Palms (probably also known as Farm Boy Culver City) is finally open. With a pretty substantial workload, I haven't had time to go there a lot, but I did manage to take some pictures. They have loads of fruits and vegetables, all described on their handwritten cards as "sweet and fresh." The sushi looks about on par with Ralphs, and they have fruit flavored yogurts with all the Pinkberry trimmings....

For 36 years, The Wiener Factory has been serving hot dogs out of their Sherman Oaks stand to loyal and new customers alike. Good for hot dog lovers, bad for residents craving Pinkberry:Officials with Pinkberry, a nonfat frozen-yogurt chain, were expected to tell a Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council panel Monday night that they wanted to raze the small hot-dog restaurant and build another Pinkberry store. "Historically, many things come and go. But we have...

Some are considering it "if you can't beat em - invest in em", but any good judge of fads know that the worst thing that Starbucks could have ever done to Pinkberry is fork over $27.5 million to the local frozen yogurt chain so they can continue to multiply at a rapid pace. Why would Starbucks want people eating a quasi-yogurt treat next summer at Pberry instead of slurping down a freshly made Frappuchino at...

Sure, all over the country the kids are back in school, the temperatures are beginning to dip down, and Starbucks has begun to shill its autumnal fare, but here in Sunny So Cal we are still sweating out our eternal summer, gorging on frozen dairy product treats of often questionable origin. Try as we might, the world of fro-yo is too mighty to ignore, which is why we feel compelled to bring you This Week...

No! This just can't be happening! I scrupulously avoid reading anything published by the LA County Department of Health, because otherwise I would never be able to eat anywhere ever again. Unfortunately, my friend Donna just alerted me to the fact that Doughboy's, provider of our red velvet cake fix, made the Health Department's Food Facility Closure List for the period 05/31/2007 through 08/31/2007. Due to vermin infestation. Quelle horreur ! In reality, I...

The unwritten rules for laundromats built before 1987 are as following: A. A half dozen washers or dryers must have Out of Order signs B. A crazy looking person who doesn't appear to be doing laundry at all must stare randomly at people. C. A musty classic arcade game such as Ms. Pac-Man or Galaga sit in the corner for entertainment. Now, I'm not a slack-jawed obsessive classic arcade gamer by any means but I...

1. Go running on Los Feliz Blvd in the evenings, to get the anger out. (It's well-lit, fairly level, and a little exhilarating with all the cars rushing by. Just mind the sprinklers at 8.) 2. Hang out in Studio City or Burbank, etc. There's something oddly cheerful and reliable about that area. 3. Make frequent, unapologetic Pinkberry and gelato trips. 4. Go to the Griffith Observatory and see the Planetarium. That is some uplifting...

My family spends so much time at the Farmers Market that many of the restaurant owners know my kids by name. I even married a man who grew up in the neighborhood and spent much of his childhood exploring the rows of fruit stands, butchers, and food from around the world. Though the market has added some chains like Starbucks and the soon to open Pinkberry, the vintage charm of old LA still prevails. The market continues to be a gathering place for both locals and tourists. Last week we spent a morning buying fruit, snacking on doughnuts, and visiting many of our Farmers Market friends.

Over on the Eastside, and in many other Latino enclaves, summer has been synonymous with the ringing bells of those mobile vendors hawking paletas, fruity iced wonders in many vibrant colors and flavors. While the Westsiders rage with their yogurt wars, it seems that the LA Times has finally discovered these icy treats that us in the barrios have been enjoying for decades. Paletas come in many different flavors, from coconut and strawberry for...

A few weeks ago, a YouTube video popped up called "Car Bomb In West Los Angeles" in which it appears that some sort of crane-like robot (an extra Transformer that didn't quite make Michael Bay's cut?) pulls an unidentified object out of the trunk of a car. At about the four minute mark in the video, the robot sets the thing off to the side of a building, and a loud noise is heard, as if something was detonated.