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Gateway Hanover Sweet Frog: New yogurt treat for summer heat

Caia Caldwell, For FlipSide

Posted: 06/05/2012 03:20:50 PM EDT

Customers hold dishes of frozen yogurt topped with gummy worms, cookie dough pieces and hot fudge. (FLIPSIDE CLARE BECKER)

Cake batter, pineapple, NY cheesecake, chocolate and strawberry - all flavors of frozen yogurt lining the green tiled wall.

South Western high-schoolers and best friends, Josie Quinn and Justice King, say that this is likely the 10th time they have been to the shop in the past three weeks.

"They have everything," Josie said. "They have all these toppings. The yogurt is different everytime. And, the atmosphere is really cute."

On May 9, Sweet Frog, a frozen yogurt shop, opened up just in time for the hot summer weather.

Kim Smith and her 4-year-old son, Drayer, have stopped in to celebrate the approaching end of school. Drayer is enjoying mint yogurt with whipped cream and Reese's Pieces.

While he said he enjoys the yogurt, it's really the whipped cream he's a fan of.

Why does he like it so much? "It tastes good," he said bashfully.

Manager and co-owner Stacey Martin started up the shop with her husband and her in-laws.

"It's pretty busy all day," Martin said. "At night, we've had lines around the building."

The shop, located in the new Gateway Hanover shopping center, is self serve and boasts 14 different flavors of yogurt and 50 rotating toppings. Martin attributes the shop's popularity to the ability of people to create their own dessert.

"It's not like a sundae, where everything is already made for you," she said.

The concept of self-serve yogurt is spreading across the country and Hanover is the newest town to buy into the frozen yogurt fad. Hundreds of chic frozen yogurt shops have sprung up in the last

10 years. Pittsburgh has Razzy Fresh. In Philadelphia, they're called Kiwi. Two large national chains, Red Mango and Pinkberry, have numerous shops throughout the states.

The Hanover Sweet Frog is not the only one in the area. There is a York shop, a Mechanicsburg shop that opened last month, and shops in Lancaster and Waynesboro are planned for the future.

The idea for all locations is the same:

Josie Quinn, 16, left, and Justice King, 16, of Hanover, add toppings to their frozen yogurt at Sweet Frog in Hanover, which opened May 9. The shop located in the new Gateway Hanover shopping center is self serve and boasts 14 different flavors of frozen yogurt. (FLIPSIDE CLARE BECKER)

customers fill up containers with different flavors of frozen yogurt, and pile on fruit and candy as toppings. They serve themselves as little or as much as they want and pay by the weight of the container.

Sweet Frog's logo "Grab a cup, Fill it up, Jazz it up, Weight it up," summarizes the process. The DIY concept is popular, and people are drawn in by seemingly endless ways to make a frozen treat.

Katie Grance of Biglerville agrees.

"It's fun with all of the choices," she said. "You could order an ice cream and get big scoops. Here, you take a little or as much as you want."

With many people watching their weight or trying to eat better foods, frozen yogurt is seen as a healthier alternative. While it's true that in general frozen yogurt has less fat than ice cream, premium frozen yogurt can easily have as much sugar and calories as ice cream.

The current frozen yogurt craze is not the first time the sweet treat has been in the spotlight. Although the origins of the idea are a bit murky, most believe frozen yogurt was introduced in England in the 1970s. TCBY popularized the product in the U.S. during the late '70s and '80s.

After a small hiatus in notoriety, it's back. Interestingly, the new trend is thought to have in part come from a recent frozen yogurt craze in South Korea, and most of the new frozen yogurt chains in the U.S. were opened by Asian American entrepreneurs.

Derek Cha, of Richmond Va., is the founder of Sweet Frog. The chain began in 2009 and spread quickly through Virginia, and then other states. Martin's inlaws, who formely lived in Virginia, came up with the idea to open one of the popular franchises in Pennsylvania. Martin said they have recently relocated to Hanover to help manage the new business. The shop currently employs 16 part-time workers.

With the shop's bright colors, cartoon frog mascot and a life-size chalkboard on the tables, the shop seems to cater to young children. Martin said they've had people of all ages, but after

3 p.m.,when schools let out, the shop is flooded with kids.

Jemie Fofanah and Kathryn Hardman drove up from Gettysburg after school. They had seen all the Hanover kids talking about the shop on Twitter, and wanted to see what the fuss was about. Now, on their third visit, the duo makes themed concoctions with their yogurt. Today, Jemie said hers is cookies and candy. Kathryn's is fruit.

Martin said she knows where a majority of her business is coming from.

"It's become a hang out for high school kids," she said.

- Caia Caldwell,
For FlipSide