Durand
Ford shows how you can swirl two flavors in one cone at
Easy Breezy Frozen Yogurt, the self-serve soft-serve shop
he and wife Ariel Ford opened in July on 24th Street.Photo by Pamela Gerard
When Eureka Valley residents Ariel and Durand
Ford began planning
their dessert shop, they dreamed of transporting the taste and
feel of a
Midwestern “shake shack” to Noe Valley.
“My husband grew up spending his summers in White
Bear Lake,
Minnesota. There’s this specific shake shack there, called the
Cup and Cone,
that was our original inspiration,” says Ariel.
The Fords’ new creation has been briskly selling
soft-serve frozen
yogurt and ice cream since it opened in mid-July. And Easy
Breezy Frozen Yogurt
has for sure brought a breath of fresh air to the
neighborhood.
Reclaimed Northern California wood, carved in
retro wavy panels,
adorns the walls of the store, located in the former home of
Cosmic Wizard at
4028 24th St. Customers—the space seats about 20—can lick
their cones while
perched on wooden stools and log-like benches. “You feel that
you’re outside,
even if you’re inside,” says Ariel.
The Easy Breezy logo—a cute cartoon character
(“Breezy”) created
by Durand Ford and designer Chris Fettin and available on
T-shirts—is another
nostalgic touch in the store. But never fear, the shop is in
the 21st century
when it comes to being green. “Anything you walk in here and
get is fully
compostable,” even the spoons, says Ariel, who is a co-founder
of the tech
businesses CareSquare and Red Gorilla.
She and Durand buy their organic yogurt—plain,
tart, vanilla, and
chocolate—from Straus Family Creamery of Petaluma. To create
their own frozen
yogurt flavors, they add fruit or other sweets and spices.
“For our raspberry
yogurt, we use fresh raspberries, fresh limes for our lime,”
says Ariel.
To the delight of multigenerations, they also
sell frozen custard—creamy
soft-serve ice cream made with whipped egg yolks.
Every few days, the shop brings out two new
flavors. “We try to
make one of them a little more kid-friendly and one of them a
little more
adult-focused,” says Ariel.
In mid-August, Nutella, Lime Breezy, Vanilla
Bean, Chocolate Milk,
Tart, and Vanilla Custard were on tap. (To see current
flavors, check Easy
Breezy on Twitter or Facebook.)
What puts the “easy” in Easy Breezy is that
customers build their
own frozen treats. They take a cup or cone and serve
themselves from
wall-mounted dispensers, then pick their toppings, such as
nuts, chunks of
fruit, cookie dough, coconut, potato chips, or granola.
“We love the idea of mixing the salty with the
sweet,” says Ariel,
who recently added figs, Frosted Flakes, and Ritz Crackers to
the store’s
repertoire.
“Mochi and bursting boba balls are the biggest
sellers with the
Noe Valley kids.”
A clerk weighs the final concoction, which is
rung up at 55 cents
an ounce.
In addition to running a brand new business,
Ariel and her
Shakespearean-trained actor husband are raising three young
boys. “They’re not
old enough to work in here, but they’re certainly old enough
to enjoy it,” says
Ariel.
Easy Breezy Frozen Yogurt is open from noon to 10
p.m., seven days
a week.
