Deal of the day: FroYo shop for sale on St. Mark's Place

Spotted on Craigslist:

Busy Self-Serve frozen yogurt shop in East Village for sale buy owner.

Store is located on St. Marks Place between 2nd and 3rd Avenue. Extremely high foot traffic area 7 days a week.

Great for frozen yogurt business or other fast food concepts.

Store has been in business since 2008. Absentee owner looking to sell.

9 years, 6 months remaining on new lease with new 2013 tax base year.

750 SF plus basement storage space. Plenty of space for outdoor seating as well.

Current monthly rent way below market at $6200.

The listing doesn't mention the shop by name, but it has to be Yogurt Station, which recently reopened after a several-months hiatus.

Apparently no one will be getting Yogurt Crazy now on Third Avenue

[June 2012]

Signs went up for an incoming Yogurt Crazy last June on Third Avenue between 12th Street and 11th Street ... replacing the hardware store that closed in January 2010...

However, there was never any craziness... Last month, we spotted a "rent demand" letter on the door from landlord NYU ... Per the letter, signed by Peter Min, director of NYU's Lease and Acquisitions, Yogurt Crazy owes $37,134.87 "for rent and additional rent" through Feb. 28.

Last Monday, we spotted more legalese papers taped to the door...

And now, someone has removed the Yogurt Crazy signage....



So! Let's do a quick FroYo recap. A Twister self-serve frozen yogurt shop is in the works on Second Avenue near East Seventh Street. The Yogurt Station remains closed on St. Mark's Place ... the NLYU Yogurt on First Avenue near East 10th Street closed after just a few months in business.

Oh! That Yooglers froyo place opened on Broadway near East 10th Street about a month or so ago. Never noted that...



Before the building housing Yooglers was torn down to make way for luxury condos, the address was the last home to New York City's unofficial poet laureate Frank O'Hara. Read more about that at Jeremiah's Vanishing New York.

East Village FroYo craze lives on, apparently

Over on Second Avenue near East Seventh... there's a new tenant for the former Spa Belles location ... A Twister self-serve frozen yogurt shop...

Here's the description of one from Long Island:

Twister Frozen Yogurt is a family-owned and -operated, self-serve frozen yogurt shop. It features an ever-rotating selection of 16 flavors, including low-fat and sugar-free options, as well as sorbets. The toppings bar stocks 40 toppings, including fresh fruit, nuts, hot fudge and more.

Meanwhile. The Yogurt Station remains closed on St. Mark's Place ... the NLYU Yogurt on First Avenue near East 10th Street closed after just a few months in business... And there's still no sign of the Yogurt Crazy shop on Third Avenue.

Wafels & Dinges hoping for a spring opening on Avenue B

[Jan. 5]

Last April 4, we first reported that Wafels & Dinges will open its first café based on the same concept as the popular food trucks in circulation around the city... W&D founder Thomas DeGeest, an East Village resident, provided a brief update on the storefront on Avenue B and East Second Street.

"Our store is progressing at turtle speed. I'm hoping for March or April," he said via a Facebook message. "Building trucks is definitely easier."

He also noted that it "will be as much a good coffee place as a waffle and ice cream place."

And no frozen yogurt.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Is Wafels & Dinges opening a café on Second Street and Avenue B?

Fern Cliff Delicatessen is closing on Third Avenue

A tipster points out that Fern Cliff Delicatessen on Third Avenue at NYU will be closing... the tipster notes that the shelves are mostly empty...

...and a listing for the space his already appeared... per the flyer, "non cooking food considered." But! "No coffee, pizza or frozen yogurt."

From looking at this photo on the listing, businesses where women can pose like this are apparently welcome...

Fists of FroYo

After walking by the 16 Handles on Second Avenue the last few weeks and seeing this... "Now handling: Fist Pumpkin" ...

I decided to see just what Fist Pumpkin meant. Seemed like something I'd find at Urban Dictionary... but, according to a 16 Handles news release:

16 Handles™ ... welcomes back seasonal favorite ‘Fist Pumpkin,’ a beloved, limited edition frozen yogurt designed to capture the spirit and flavor of the autumn harvest.

“Fist Pumpkin got its name from the reaction we saw when guests tasted this flavor—lots of excitement and even a little fist pumping,” said Solomon Choi, 16 Handles founder. “We’re excited to welcome Fist Pumpkin back into the mix and to reunite our brand fans with a flavor that they look forward to all year.”

So now you know too...

[UPDATED] Did the Yogurt Station close on St. Mark's Place?

That's what a reader asked. With the paper over the windows/doors and all. Perhaps just a remodeling.

Does anyone know?

Meanwhile, we went to Yelp to see if we could find any clues ... There's a reluctant 2-star review from last Saturday... The Yelper asked, "What HAPPENED!!!!"

Yeah, what happened?

There were only two flavors: red velvet and chocolate. I'd go for the red velvet. MELTED!!!!! So I went for chocolate (eh, nothing special). By the time I got to eat it, it was already melted.

There was a good amount of flavors, mind you. And they STAYED frozen to the last bite. Not tonight!

Not to mention, the girl behind the register had quite the grumpy face. Before then, there was a friendly girl that worked the register. This makes me sad. Maybe service went downhill because the employee(s) there don't care about maintaining the store.

Anyway, the last time that we saw paper over the windows at this address... from February 2009...



UPDATED:
Nope, still open! Just closed for remodeling or something.

New shop carries on proud tradition of St. Mark's Place

As we reported last April 1, Cherries, the porn adult gift shop on St. Mark's Place had closed...

Smart money was on a frozen yogurt shoppe taking over the space... a rare commodity in these parts.

But seriously, the new shop has emerged...

The Save Ray's clothing and accessories line

East Village resident Conrad Oakey designed the Save Ray's logo for the flyers promoting tonight's Save Ray's benefit at the Theater For The New City on First Avenue... Oakey says the image is taken from a photo of Ray holding up the the cover of the Daily News in the days after Sept. 11, 2001...



"I got to know Ray first by becoming addicted to his frozen yogurt, then later by setting him up with Internet access," Oakey says. "I've never seen anyone take such joy in the access to the world the Web provides.

"When he told me about his troubles making rent, I started thinking about what how iconic he is ... and how having some T-shirts around to sell to his late night following would give him another revenue stream."

Now, in another fund-raising effort for Ray's, Oakey and Matt Rosen teamed up to incorporate the Save Ray's image and launch a line of Save Ray's clothing and accessories at Cafe Press. There are more than 80 items for sale. (Including the Save Ray's "classic thong.")





Rosen, who moderates the East Village Neighborhoodr blog, says Ray gets 100 percent of the "markup" on each item sold. (So, if a T-shirt has a wholesale/base cost of $8, and is sold for $12, Ray gets $4.) As Rosen notes, the benefit of using CafePress is that neither Ray or anybody else has to put up any money up front to purchase the inventory and then worry about selling it afterward. CafePress sends out checks once sales reach a certain amount.

"I'll just keep track and hand Ray the money as it comes in," Rosen says. "Hopefully this really takes off. Aside from the fund-raising aspects, it's a neat way for people to show their support."

There will be several of the clothing items available for purchase tonight at the benefit.



As for tonight, Rev. Billy and the Life After Shopping Gospel Choir will be one of the many groups performing. I asked Rev. Billy why Ray's is important to the East Village. He responded, via e-mail:

A healthy neighborhood feels good, it's funky, it's real and it's love! Our neighborhoods are not for sale: we must protect local shops like Ray's, which allow us to encounter each other and share and create stories with each other in a community!

Arizona-based smoothie outlet coming to Seventh Street

Xoom Juice. At the site of the former Tiny Living shop, which closed in April, on Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue. Xoom has three locations in Tuscon, Ariz. So what are we in for? According to their Web site:

what's the xoom difference? good question
well, for starters, it's what we leave out of our drinks: no sherbet, no sorbet, no ice cream, no added sugar, no high fructose corn syrup, or anything to artificially flavor our smoothies.

so what's left? how about just pure fruit, 100% fruit juice, organic soymilk or milk, and a bit of yogurt (frozen or fresh or non-dairy), and a *xoomer* nutrient boost. that's it. end of story.

we do this for two reasons:
1) it is really healthy
2) it tastes fabulous

we figure why mess with mother nature?
we just blend it together

The Tuscon Weekly has named Xoom the "best smoothie" the last four years... though, having never been to Tuscon, we're not sure what their competition is like...

From FroYo to dry cleaning

As Hunter-Gatherer noted this past January, öko frozen yogurt at 137 First Avenue near Ninth Street "closed for renovations" after just six months at the location...



"Closed for renovations" after six months, of course, is simply code for "we're out of business." Sure enough, the location never reopened.

Now, coming to this site: A dry cleaners.



By my count, this makes the fourth dry cleaners to open in the East Village this year.

P.S.
There are still two öko frozen yogurt shops in New York: Park Slope and Forest Hills.

[öko photo via Hunter-Gatherer]

Noted

From the Strong Buzz via Eater:

If you’ve had enough of Red Mango, Flurt, YogoMonster and the dozen or other Pinkberry clones that have opened at warp speed around town, it’s time for you to check out Daydream, Union Square’s newest chef-driven frozen yogurt shop.
Owned by Gwen Butler and partners, the shop is fashioned like an old-school ice cream parlor with elegant Italian celeste marble tables and counters, walls and ceiling painted as a windswept blue sky, dark tiled flooring and glossy white high wood wainscoting.Their yogurt is prepared in four flavors from live cultures: green tea, pomegranate, and two styles of plain—one is low-fat with a creamy texture and the other is a light-textured nonfat ($3/$5/$6 for plain flavors, $4/$5/$7 for flavored yogurts).
But the hook at this shop is the toppings (30-85 cents each) which are all made in-house by chef Greg Pena (and some by Ian Russo) like butter rum crunch, peanut butter crumble, and chocolate covered pretzel bits. More unique toppings include infused and spiced wild honeys, organic fruit dust, dehydrated espresso, milled flax seed, honey roasted wheat germ, and chocolate block shavings grated to order. All their nuts are double-roasted for extra flavor, and we toast our coconut as well. Coming soon, they’ll be serving "moffles" which are mochi waffles.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Dare to Daydream! -- and eat Fro-Yo

The fro-yo wars will be getting ugly (and pricy!)

AdAge.com delves into the competitive world of marketing frozen yogurt.

Red Mango is throwing down the gauntlet in the "authentic frozen yogurt" wars. The chain has hired the Richards Group, Dallas, in a seven-figure deal to create online, in-store, public relations and event marketing. Print and outdoor work will likely be added in 2009.

The chain's announcement comes just weeks after news that archrival Pinkberry hired branding firm Bulldog Drummond, San Diego.

EV Grieve's complete Fro-Yo library.

No, really? Seriously? SERIOUSLY?!

At 110 E. Third St. You can't make this stuff up.




So that glassy condo at 110 Third Ave. has a frozen yogurt shop and Bank of America branch in its adjacent retail space. Seems about right.

Hooters and Red Mango

This thought crossed my mind when I saw the Red Mango sign in the window of the former CBGB T-shirt shop the other day: What if someone is just fucking with us?

Remember when jokesters put the Hooters sign in the window of the recently shuttered Second Avenue Deli back in February 2006? Lordy, had I been doing this site at the time, there would have been around-the-clock-developing-breaking-exclusive coverage of the sign.

Well, maybe not. Anyway, Urban Prankster recently revisited the Hooters hoax.

As for Red Mango on St. Mark's, I'm afraid we really are in for more frozen yogurt.

Getting a Handle on the new yogurt place

I walked by the soon-to-open shop at 153 Second Ave., situated between Ryan's and the Thirsty Scholar, that will sell self-service frozen yogurt.

After I snapped this photo, a man walked out of the shop. I asked him when they would be opening for business. He paused for so long, I got the idea that he had nothing to do with the place and maybe just happened by to steal tools or something. He finally said "maybe in a couple of months." Dunno how reliable that is. You'd think they'd want to be open for the summer...

I've lost track at all the dessert joints along here for tourists and NYU kids. There's the Tasti-D-Lite across the street. And the fat, bald guy's chocolate place. And the 8-9 or so Berry places on St. Mark's...And how many things have given this spot a go in recents years? La Ame Russe? Barracuda Bistro?Bandito?