All stories about "Red Mango"

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

After it was denied entry into North Beach back in January, frozen yogurt giant Red Mango has retreated, regrouped, found greener pastures just south of the city, and is planning on opening three shops down the Peninsula in the following locations: 429 University Avenue (Palo Alto), 3055 Olin Avenue (Santana Row) and 852 Laurel Street (San Carlos). You can't stop Red Mango, you can only hope to contain it. Pinkberry, meanwhile, continues to wait. [EaterWire, previously]

Friday, February 1, 2008

Adventures in Shilling: This Post is a Jubili Knockoff

Adventures in Shilling is a celebration of the latest and greatest shills from around the world wide web. As always, you too can help fight shills.

Given the entire nature of the frozen yogurt wars, it's fairly natural that fro-yo shops should resort to the dirty, dirty practice of shilling. We imagine that once a shop is actually cleared to open, it's difficult to differentiate one fro-yo place from the other, especially given that, well, they all seem to have the same logo. With at least four new frozen yogurt shops slated to open in February, the Fillmore's Jubili—just opened in the fall, mind you—wants us all to know who's really the originator, which is quite ironic, seeing as how Jubili can probably be filed under Pinkberry/Red Mango knockoff itself.

Exhibit A comes via the shill cesspool called Yelp; here's a one-star entry, dated 1/29 for the unopened Tuttimelon (apologies for the caps):

"Four Stars OFF automatically! for DECOR!!

Quickly owned JUBILI KNOCK OFF!?!?
They attempted same walls, same tiles (you have to give them a little credit for using a slightly different shade of color), same counter,
BUT probably a SECRET MIX FROM CHINA?!?"
Shill Probability: 40%

But the assaults on Tuttimelon didn't stop on Yelp. A Chowhound post wondering about the new yogurt shop elicited the following pair of responses:

The plot thickens with more shills, including (gasp) some in our own backyard >>

>> Fro-Yo Wars —

The San Francisco Business Times hops on the yogurt bandwagon, touting it as a SoCal craze ready to "battle for Bay Area taste buds." In addition to touching on mom-and-pop shops, the piece shares the states of affair regarding the two biggies: "Pinkberry ... fizzled in its first Bay Area foray and has yet to try again. Meanwhile, Red Mango, the other big name in frozen yogurt, was stymied in efforts to open in North Beach by the neighborhood's chain-store ban. Red Mango continues negotiations on additional local sites in San Carlos and elsewhere, said Dan Kim, the company's CEO." [SFBT]

Monday, January 28, 2008

Red Mango No-Go: The Teary Signage Epilogue

Following last week's sob story about how North Beach's chain ordinance essentially killed Survivor winner Yul Kwon's bid to open a Red Mango franchise, the above signage now graces the storefront at 527 Columbus Avenue. (Sidebar: Note the similarity in tone to the open letter written by fellow embattled North Beach fro-yo purveyor Honeydoo back in October.) In any event, the signage indicates that Red Mango has pretty much abandoned the idea, and Kwon is on record saying he won't ever try to open another restaurant in the city. Whether or not Red Mango will venture back in San Francisco remains to be seen, but with Pinkberry poised to make a Bay Area run, odds are good that its chief rival Red Mango will want to make a local push at some point. So go the yogurt wars, after all.
· Fro-Yo Wars: Red Mango Denied Entry Into North Beach [~ESF~]
· North Beach ties up 'Survivor' winner [Chron]

Thursday, January 24, 2008

>> Fro-Yo Wars —

Now that D-list celeb Yul Kwon's Red Mango permit has been revoked by the chain law, he says he is stuck paying $7,000 a month for the next ten years, though he has a meeting scheduled with the one man who can make Red Mango happen: Supervisor Aaron Peskin. The ordinance is pretty clearcut and Red Mango certainly qualifies a chain, but a duped Kwon was given the OK from the city in November, so to revoke it without retribution seems a bit harsh, no? Discuss. [Chron, previously]

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

>> Fro-Yo Wars, Cont. —

Your favorite neighborhood blog and ours, Curbed SF, weighs in on the Red Mango situation, and some valid points unfold in the comments: "This entire adventure would make a lot more sense if all of the members opposed had retail ventures in the berg which they were trying desperately to protect. They don't. They also don't have a viable plan to keep empty storefronts from being empty. They don't have any program to subsidize mom or pop to open what they find acceptable. They don't seem to mind a streetscape full of marginal business concerns." [Curbed SF]

Fro-Yo Wars: Red Mango Denied Entry Into North Beach

The above sign graced the Honeydoo storefront back in November.

Turns out that the epic Honeydoo-North Beach controversy of the autumnal months isn't the only frozen yogurt show in the neighborhood, as C.W. Nevius sheds some light on another North Beach fro-yo shitshow, this time in the form of Red Mango. Now, for those unaware, many circles—don't ask of what—consider Red Mango to be the original frozen yogurt shop, even better than one Pinkberry (also en route). The first local outpost of Red Mango—headed by Yul Kwon, winner of Survivor, no less—was supposed to open on the corner of Columbus and Green, but the neighborhood's anti-chain ordinance has since blocked it. So what's the controversy about, you ask? It seems there may be some loopholes:

We Break Down the Swirly Pro and Con, NEXT >>