Starbucks buys Pinkberry

I've never been to a Pinkberry and only heard of it recently. Today I read in another forum that the venture capital firm co-founded by the Starbucks chairman purchased it for $27.5M. Here's the article. Has anyone been to a Pinkberry? How is it?

looks like a Coldstone Creamery but with yogurt. Never seen one as it appears to be only a (mostly) California thing and a few in NY.

it claims "honest food without preservatives, additives or excess sugar". To me, that usually implies lack of excess taste. And that capn' crunch & fruity pebbles topping doesn't have any of those ?

Can't say I'd pay a visit in Chicago.

Pinkberry specializes in Asian-style tart frozen yogurt, which has the taste of real yogurt, slightly sweetened. The effect is similar to sweet cream ice cream - a pure, creamy background for whatever toppings you want to add. The best toppings they offer, IMHO, are the mochi and the fresh fruit - mangoes, strawberries, blueberries, kiwi, among others.

It has spawned a whole series of competitors and has been the hot trend of 2006-07 in Southern California. It will be interesting to see how much staying power they have.

I've really enjoyed Pinkberry, the green tea flavor especially. Not that wowed by the toppings.

If it does come here, I won't be too frequent a customer. It's fine for an occasional treat but it's expensive and I don't care what they say about it being healthy; it is clearly chock-full of sugar.

I'm still waiting for Starfruit, Lifeway Foods' first retail store, to open. They will have regular kefir, frozen kefir, and frozen yogurt. I believe the target opening date is now late November.

Starfruit
1745 W. Division St.
Chicago, IL 60622

According to their press release, Starfruit will be opening April 15th, 2008 and will be giving out free treats.

"The shop will offer several flavors of frozen kefir with over 20 toppings as well as customized kefir parfaits, and smoothie-style kefir drinks...We anticipate the grand opening will be on April 15, when customers can take their mind off of their taxes by getting a free treat"

Starfruit
1745 W. Division St.
Chicago, IL 60622

Fujisan wrote:According to their press release, Starfruit will be opening April 15th, 2008 and will be giving out free treats.

"The shop will offer several flavors of frozen kefir with over 20 toppings as well as customized kefir parfaits, and smoothie-style kefir drinks...

I wonder whether they will offer Bulgarzoon.

Wow. Pinkberry made out like a bandit considering that they only had that $12,000 American Express line of credit to pay off.