If you could eat ice cream 24/7 and not have to worry about all the calories and hidden fats and, would you? Of course! Anyone would! That is the great thing about City Girl Yogurt, located off campus in Urbana. This frozen yogurt shop has a unique ice cream taste without all the regret.
City Girl Yogurt owner Amanda Yates said the best thing about her yogurt is its ice cream texture. Made in Portland, Oregon, the yogurt is fermented for 7 1/2 hours, and there are no artificial flavors added.
From the big city to small town, frozen yogurt shops are everywhere. Yates, a central Illinois native, moved to Chicago to live among the hustle and bustle. Her job as a meeting planner, however, shifted Yates from the city scene back to central Illinois, all the way to Utah and back again here right in the C-U where she manages her own shop filled with tasty treats.
While working as a meeting planner at age 22, Yates was diagnosed with cancer. Living in Utah at the time, the poor air quality left her immune system weak. The discovery of frozen yogurt, however, kept her going. “I couldn’t eat anything; I was sick to my stomach all the time,” Yates said. “I felt like I was 100, and all I could eat was this frozen yogurt.”
After living in Utah for a little over two months, Yates thought it would be best to move back to the Midwest where her family resided, and she soon opened up City Girl Yogurt.
The original name was Skinny Girl Yogurt, but due to a name discrepancy with Bethenny Frankel’s (from “The Real Housewives of New York”) product Skinnygirl cocktails, Yates decided to change the name and disregard the legal dispute with Frankel.
“I thought, you know what, it [City Girl] fit,” Yates said. “We only had to change the first word, we would still have the “I” so I could use my pink spoon and I was living in the city before I got here.”
Regular flavors of the shop include chocolate, vanilla and original tart. Other flavors are interchangeable, such as an old favorite, cake batter, and a newer, trendier flavor, red velvet cake.
Toasted marshmallow was a quick buy for many customers during its short but popular run at the shop. All month, customers will see this season’s popular flavor among many types of food: pumpkin cheesecake.
“My favorite flavor is Cafe Latte,” Yates said. “I also eat original tart every day for breakfast.”
City Girl Yogurt also has an abundance of toppings such as fruits (strawberries, pineapple, blueberries, raspberries,) chocolates (Reese’s Pieces, Kit Kat, M&M’s,) candies (Nerds and gummy bears) and the most popular topping: waffle cone bites. An interesting but also popular topping at the shop is bacon bites.
The countless combination of flavors can vary and some may seem quite questionable. Yates said the most absurd flavor combination she knew of was a child’s concoction of watermelon and peanut butter yogurt together. Needless to say, one bite of that and it wasn’t pleasant.
City Girl Yogurt offers discounts. For the month of October, customers wearing pink for Breast Cancer Awareness month will get 10% off, and those repping orange and blue on game days will also get the same discount.
As far as my City Girl Yogurt experience went, I can say that with this season’s flavor pumpkin cheesecake and vanilla yogurt and a dash of almonds, graham cracker dust, waffle cone bites and a hint of orange and blue sprinkles, I’ll be coming back for more!