Columbians certainly love their dietetic, low-calorie, icy frozen treats. Lerner Hall houses a Tasti D-Lite, Pinnacle sells frozen yogurt 24 hours a day, and Oren’s Daily Roast provides even more Tasti. Relative newcomer Artopolis provides naturally low-fat gelato and, of course, frozen yogurt. It’s enough to make you wonder if the entire student body follows the same fad diet, at the core of which is fake ice cream. It’s the only logical explanation as to how all of these locales survive.
Another competitor is entering the fray, hoping to be the choice frozen snack. Pinkberry, an Asian-inspired chain out of Los Angeles, has already opened a few New York City locations. But its newest, at 112th Street and Broadway, may face some of the stiffest competition due to all of the other choices nearby. It’s inhabiting the former location of a Cremalita, another frozen custard shop that is popular in the city but that didn’t quite rank for Columbia students.
There is a certain buzz around Pinkberry. For one, it is the snack du jour for Hollywood’s trendsetters. Before her second trip to rehab, Lindsay Lohan was photographed eating Pinkberry so often that people started to wonder just what exactly was in the concoction. While the Web site does not provide an ingredients list, it does say: “Pinkberry is swirly goodness. It’s honest food, without preservatives, additives, or excess sugar. It is dessert reinvented.” There are only 25 calories per ounce, but if you want to know exactly what you’re consuming, this may not be the ideal product.
The seemingly negligible calorie content is the second part of its allure. Pinkberry has a reputation for being healthy (or at least in comparison to Haagen-Dazs, one of the only traditional ice cream outlets in our immediate radius). It only comes in two flavors—plain and green tea—a far cry from chocolate fudge brownie or cookies and cream. Then there are the toppings. While you can find your standard rainbow sprinkles and chocolate chips, the true Pinkberry connoisseur takes advantage of the array of fresh fruit—including mango, kiwi and numerous different berries—or even turns it into a meal more suitable for breakfast by adding granola or Cap’n Crunch cereal.
Kelly Healton, CC ’08, echoes this sentiment. “I think the plain yogurt at least seems healthier and like a more ‘authentic’ frozen yogurt. I think it will be a good place to go for a snack with fruit toppings rather than a really sweet and filling dessert.”
Yet it’s anyone’s guess if Pinkberry will last for the long haul. Even students who eat a meal or two at Tasti D-Lite lament Pinkberry’s distance from campus. Those extra blocks from East Campus, and the fact that you can’t swipe for this swirly goodness, makes you wonder whether this newcomer will hold its own amid the abundance of frozen yogurt shops in Morningside Heights.