yogurtrush

Amer's enters the frozen dairy biz.

by Sally Mitani

posted 11/22/2009

When a sign announcing yogurtrush appeared a few months ago on State Street, it looked as if the block had suddenly grown a new storefront. But a closer look reveals that it's actually part of Amer's deli--a store within a store. "We had been doing yogurt for a year with just the one machine," says Damon Hoffman, Amer's State Street manager, but it wasn't the trendy, sour kind. Then owner Amer Bathish decided to aggressively pursue that new niche by inventing the yogurtrush brand and giving over part of his State and Church street stores to expanded self-serve dairy bars. Customers have their choice of regular (non-sour) chocolate and vanilla or a selection of sour flavors. As at Swirlberry down the street, the yogurt is sold by the ounce (49 cents, undercutting Swirlberry's 65cents) with a cornucopia of fruit and candy topping options.

Amer's is the fourth entrant to the frozen dairy biz on State's campus strip (Ben & Jerry's and Stucchi's are practically next door). The arrival of yogurtrush completely killed any plans by South University's Yogo Bliss owners Mack Kim and Joe Ahn to open a second shop on State. Kim says they had looked at the empty Ritz Camera and Shaman Drum spaces.

yogurtrush, inside Amer's, 312 S. State (761-6000) and 611 Church (769-1210). www.amersdeli.com

Got a retail or restaurant change? Send email to tonymcreynolds@tds.net or sallymitani@gmail.com or leave voicemail at 769-3175, ext. 309.   

[Originally published in November, 2009.]