So Coco Swirl has finally opened on Locust Street, next door to Century 14 movie theater, and in the former space occupied by Moonstruck Chocolates.And ... Coco Swirl is a block from the trendy and the self-proclaimed healthy Red Mango, which took over the former Maggie Moo's spot in Plaza Escuela.
All these changes!
And remember, Red Mango is famous for its association with Yul Kwon, the affable winner of the 2006 season of TV's Survivor. Kwon grew up in Walnut Creek, became a health nut and proclaimed Red Mango to be "literally the healthiest yogurt out there." However, Kwon has picked up and moved to Washington D.C. There, the Yale Law School grad will be working in the Obama administration, at the Federal Communications Commission as Deputy Chief of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau.
Meanwhile, the new Coco Swirl and Red Mango are going up against longtime Yogurt Castle, at the corner pf North California Boulevard and Bonanza Street, to win over our frozen yogurt hearts, minds, and stomachs.
Back in August, my husband, son, and I did our own tasting of frozen yogurt offerings at Red Mango and Yogurt Castle. Now, Coco Swirl has arrived in town. Who is going to win this fro-yo battle? Or, maybe there is a market for all three?
But even contemplating frozen yogurt--oh my goodness!--I'm warping back to the 1980s. If my memory serves me correctly, Yogurt Castle was in business in Walnut Creek in the 1980s. I remember patronizing it myself. And weren't frozen yogurt franchises cropping up everywhere in the 1980s, not just here in the Bay Area, but nationally, even internationally?
Wasn't frozen yogurt the sought-after dessert, because it offered all of us weight-freaked-out Americans the illusion that indulging in vanilla non-fat frozen yogurt (topped, of course, with chocolate chips, Oreos, and M&Ms) was healthy and wouldn't expand our waistlines?
Well, as I write this, it's time to listen to some Talking Heads. The other night, my son and I watched The Breakfast Club. And, in the past month, we have commemorated two historical events of the 1980s: the Loma Prieta earthquake and the fall of the Berlin Wall.
