Upscale yogurt shop opening in Wicker Park
STARFRUIT | Cafe among many coming to area
Lifeway Foods Inc. is bringing culture to the Wicker Park neighborhood.
The Morton Grove-based company built on the production of kefir -- a drinkable cultured dairy product -- on Tuesday opens a retail frozen yogurt shop at 1745 W. Division.
(Jim Frost/Sun-Times files)
The cafe, called Starfruit, debuts by giving away samples of its kefir parfaits, frozen kefir and smoothies.
It's among a slew of upscale frozen yogurt shops coming on the Chicago scene.
Berry Chill opened on 635 N. State last month and began wooing fashionistas with an appearance at Gen Art's March Shop Chicago event. The yogurt bar, open until 4 a.m. on weekends, will see a sister store at 132 N. La Salle this spring.
South Korean chain Red Mango, dealing in vanilla and green tea flavors, will open stores in Evanston and Naperville next week.
Lifeway is capitalizing on the buzz, having started planning the $150,000 test store in 2006, said Julie Smolyansky, Lifeway's president and CEO.
The company first began freezing its kefir about 10 years ago, but the timing wasn't right to push the product, Smolyansky said.
"Ten years ago, it was such a hard sell, we thought."