CherryBerry Opens After Months of Anticipation

After months of anticipation, CherryBerry Self-Serve Yogurt has opened its doors at 106 E. Silver Spring Dr.

CherryBerry is a national self-serve frozen yogurt chain offering over 50 rotating varieties of frozen yogurt flavors with over 50 toppings to add on. Customers walk in the door, grab a cup to fill with frozen yogurt, then add their own toppings from the topping bar. After filling their cups, customers weigh their yogurt on a scale and pay for it by the ounce.

CherryBerry opened its first store in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma in 2010 and has rapidly expanded to over 100 locations nationwide. The chain has already opened a Mequon location and is planning a total of 12 Wisconsin locations. 

The Whitefish Bay store opened informally Tuesday night and will hold a grand opening Wednesday. CherryBerry representatives felt Whitefish Bay was the perfect place for another location.

"Whitefish Bay has a great community feel. It's a very diverse area. We have moms, dads and we have the shoppers from Bayshore Town Center," said general manager Andrea Jenels. "There's a lot that goes on in the summer...We just thought it would be a perfect fit for the community."

It's been seven months since CherryBerry first received village approval to do business in the newly-constructed 1,615-square-foot space between Dunkin' Donuts and ATI Physical Therapy.

The delayed opening was due to the rapid pace of CherryBerry's expansion across the country.

"Construction was the main hold-up," Jenels said. "We have over 150 stores being built out right now so the company was stretched kind of thin with their construction crews. They try to use the same crews to do every store. So between this store and the other 100 stores we had to wait until they were available to us."

CherryBerry has been marketing to the community by flyering and contacting local schools.

"Everybody in the neighborhood has been really welcoming of us," said Jenels.

Julie Bartol, CherryBerry's general operations manager, said the company hopes to become an integral part of the Whitefish Bay community through grassroots marketing and fundraising.

"We want to give back to the community when it comes to our fundraisers... Sponsoring little league teams, softball teams, basketball teams whatever we can do to make us part of the community," Bartol said.

"We love to do fundraising. That's one of our biggest draws for the community; we work with schools, nonprofit organizations, and churches," Jenels said. "We do what we call a giveback night where an organization will come to us and pick a date and they will get 10 percent of our net sales from the time period that they choose."

Froyo is becoming a nationwide trend with stores opening rapidly over the past several years. This is Whitefish Bay's second frozen yogurt restaurant since Sweet Frog opened in August. Other frozen yogurt chains in the Milwaukee area include Froyo Bella at Bayshore, Red Mango in Fox Point, Berry Me on Brady Street, Yo Mama! in Wauwatosa, Orange Leaf in Wauwatosa, MyYoMy in Walker's Point and Yo Factory on Farwell.

"Frozen yogurt is different than ice cream because it has active and live cultures in it which is good for your digestive system, so it promotes a healthy balance," said Jenels.

On Wednesday and Thursday, customers can receive a promotional $3 cup of frozen yogurt. Pricing will be by the ounce at 45 cents per ounce.

CherryBerry's grand opening favors include: Valencia Orange & California Tart, Strawberry Sensations & Cheesecake, Spiced Apple Pie & Tahitian Vanilla, Pumpkin Pie & White Chocolate Wonder, Old Fashioned Peanut Butter & Chocoholic. CherryBerry also offers fat and lactose free offerings.

Daily specials and current flavors can be viewed on CherryBerry's Facebook site.