It may not look close to summer time but that isn’t stopping hundreds of North Bayites from chasing after cold treats this month.
Ronda Bean and John Grouchy are the owners of Yogurtz in North Bay.
The unique North Bay business has expanded from a frozen yogurt bar to adding ice cream, soft serve, bubble tea, and smoothies to their chilly but sweet menu.
Bean says she thought it was important to expand because not everyone wants frozen yogurt.
“Why don’t we just cater to everybody,” she and Grouchy figured.
“Now we will have hard ice cream, soft ice cream, smoothies, bubble tea. We are now like a self-serve frozen yogurt/dairy bar.
“We’ve gone through so much ice cream, there have been people coming in saying they are so glad we have ice cream now because they just weren’t fans of frozen yogurt so now we can cater to a bigger crowd.”
And they have attracted bigger crowds.
The couple estimated during March Break, Yogurtz North Bay was attracting more than 800 guests per day to the strip mall location on McKeown Avenue.
Grouchy estimates that’s a 70 percent increase in traffic from March Break last year.
The new menu expansion also included an addition of eight more seats to give the location 40 person seating.
But the owners claim the self-serve set up makes for quick service.
The owners they have seen some beautiful and some very bizarre icy creations.
Bean says the creations include masterpiece brownies and ice cream with hot fudge and peanut butter sauce and strange cookie dough and candy creations.
With all the creations measured on a scale, Bean says most treats weigh in about $4.00 to $5.00 each.
However, customers all have to be wary of brain freeze, which is a common side effect of the delicious yet very cold desserts.
“If I had a camera you would see some of the funniest things,” Bean and Grouchy both chuckled about the problem that occurs when you eat or drink something cold way too fast.
Bean, who moved back to North Bay to pursue this sweet business idea, is glad to be back home and now they may look at expanding in to other locations in the north.
The are also looking at adding a larger variety of treats in the future including milk shakes, parfaits and even ice cream cones smothered in cotton candy.
“There’s a hook with this (business) because kids and even adults, they like doing this, it’s a candy buffet,” said Grouchy.
