Does the Annex has an addictive personality or what?
It cycles through culinary trends like very few other neighbourhoods in the city. Basically, if it’s student-friendly, the Annex can’t get enough.
But what’s with its latest fixation on frozen yogurt?
The Annex’s obsession with inexpensive sushi restaurants is well-documented. There are more than 10 Japanese spots along Bloor W. past Spadina and before Koreatown, with one notable addition, Guu, opening soonish.
Then came its chicken wing phase. Between Dalton and Walmer, there are three dedicated wing places, and more beer-serving watering holes west of there that serve them.
Of course those can be explained pretty simply by students. Cheap grub, goes well with alcohol, facilitates sharing and late night dining. Right?
In the past two years, four frozen yogurt shops have opened up in the area, in addition to the established ice cream vendors that also carry the stuff.
First there was Céfiore, a California chain, at the end of the summer in 2009.
At the time, this was seen as an extension of the yogurt wars in Los Angeles, where “congeries of women in Ugg boots have lined up outside a chain of shops called Pinkberry,” a Céfiore competitor.
Then came Mon Berri, albeit east of Spadina two blocks and thus not in the Annex proper, after that. As far as I can tell, it’s the only Kosher yogurt of the bunch.
Then the pièce de résistance of the Annex, the corner that used to house Dooney’s Cafe back when coffee was the neighbourhood craze, was taken over by Menchie’s, an American chain.
The latest, YoYo’s, took over the What A Bagel! location next to the JCC.
Granted the Annex has high levels of foot traffic, but it still is winter eight months a year. The students apparently like it, as do Koreans, as Torontoist found out back in November. But it has to be more than just demographics. How can the area’s new fascination with frozen yogurt be explained?
a) Frozen yogurt is back. Don’t forget Yogen Früz, which is sort of the vanguard chain of frozen yogurt, began in August 1986 in Promenade Mall in Thornhill before expanding globally. A Canadian trend coming back for another lap.
b) The anti-pint movement. Cheap booze has put undue stress on the Annex. It may have reached its limit of drunkards in 2010, when the Globe and others began asking what happened to the once quiet, professorial neighbourhood. There was also frequent noise complaints and incidents of violence around the same time, both tied to nightlife. The area needed some balance, and frozen yogurt is that balance.
c) It’s the new bubble tea. Remember when bubble tea was a popular non-alcoholic date option? That’s now frozen yogurt.
d) A trend imported. In 2007, frozen yogurt took over California. In 2008, the first frozen yogurt cafe called Lick opened in Brighton, England, followed by a mini-explosion of them in London. And, as noted, Koreans have embraced it. Could it be over 2009 and 2010, those trends found their way to the city’s student haunts?
Any other theories?
