Yoggi's Frozen Yogurt

Pronounced with a long o, like Yogi Bear

by Sally Mitani

posted 8/7/2012

On a hot day in June, Kevin Kajy, owner of Yoggie's Frozen Yogurt, didn't have much time for idle chat. A minute-long electrical outage hadn't affected the product, but it had knocked out Comcast, which runs his phone and cash register. The students who normally make up a large part of the traffic on this block of E. Liberty were gone, but it seemed that everyone left in the neighborhood was drawn to the idea of frozen anything, even air. The place has a clean, chilly feel; business was surprisingly brisk, and customers stood and lingered.

Yoggie's opened on E. Liberty at the end of June. The name is pronounced with a long o, like Yogi Bear or, more to the point, like the first syllable of yogurt. Kajy didn't seem to think the spelling needed explaining: "It's just something me and my sisters came up with, and when we wrote it down, it ended up having two g's," he shrugged.

Kajy, twenty-six, from West Bloomfield, already owns another business, a mortgage company in Livonia called the Processing Center. "We liked the concept [of frozen yogurt] and decided to come into the business," he says. "I did a lot of research online and talked to a lot of people who were in the business, and I liked the area."

He found a few minutes to quickly point out the highlights. He has twelve flavors--more than most other fro-yo places, which customers seem to appreciate. Yellow cake batter is the biggest seller on most days, he says. Yoggie's is self-serve--49 cents an ounce, for a cup piled with as many flavors and toppings as you want. To facilitate mixing, Kajy has paired his machines so each flavor can be "twisted" with one other. Vanilla/chocolate is an obvious pairing, but the more adventurous go for fudge brownie/pistachio or yellow cake batter/caramel. He also has a vanilla custard (contains egg) and one nondairy sorbet, whose flavor changes every week.

Yoggie's Frozen Yogurt, 535 E. Liberty, 929-5826. Sun.-Thurs. 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 11:30 a.m.-midnight. No website.   

[Originally published in August, 2012.]