After a fro-yo feud with Demi Lovato, L.A.’s Bigg Chill emerges unscathed
It’s practically Bigg Chill law to photograph your swirled frozen yogurt in front of the shop’s giant neon sign, which casts a warm, pink glow on Olympic Boulevard every afternoon and well into the night.
Revered for its photogenic fro-yo mountains and decadent vegan cookie dough, the sweet spot is a West Los Angeles staple among locals who have enjoyed its chilly treats for more than three decades. But the Bigg Chill’s notoriety skyrocketed this week after pop star Demi Lovato picked a public fight with the beloved business on Instagram.
Big mistake, Demi.
Lovato’s scathing remarks about the shop’s offerings instantly backfired, prompting an outpouring of support for the Bigg Chill, as well as an apology from the “Sorry Not Sorry” singer, who had accused the company of enabling disordered eating and a toxic diet culture by selling sugar-free cookies and “other diet foods.”
“People are just really shocked,” said Cary Russell, co-owner of the Bigg Chill, on a recent phone call with The Times. “They’re shocked by how she came at us. And so were we. It was like, wait, why is she attacking us? What did we do?”
The Bigg Chill responded to Lovato’s complaints by explaining that its menu is designed to accommodate customers’ varying dietary needs and restrictions with its myriad fat-, gluten-, dairy- and sugar-free products ranging from fro-yo to potato chips.
L.A’.s Bigg Chill shuts down fake news that Demi Lovato donated $100,000 after feud
The Bigg Chill hasn’t heard from singer Demi Lovato after she issued a “sorry, not sorry” apology for blasting the L.A. frozen-yogurt shop on Instagram.
Its diverse nutritional choices are appreciated among the shop’s loyal fans, who have continued to show up for the Bigg Chill on social media and in person after Lovato’s outburst. According to Russell, the business’ Instagram inbox has been “out of control,” flooded with thousands of supportive messages. And its following on that platform has ballooned from 6,000 to more than 42,000 in less than a week.
Tuesday at 8:30 p.m., the night of 4/20, the long line for fro-yo wrapped around the shop, past five storefronts, all the way down to Bueller’s Bagels on the opposite end of the overflowing parking lot. Inside, a few bustling employees cranked out soft serve at warp speed behind a counter topped by three large tip jars brimming with cash.
In the crowded queue was David Li, a 27-year-old aerospace engineer based in Beverly Grove who has patronized the Bigg Chill with his girlfriend at least once a week for about two years. He’s fond of the shop’s signature vegan cookie dough, especially after his partner recently eliminated animal products from her diet.
Because he is lactose intolerant, Li also values the Bigg Chill’s dairy-free options — though sometimes even he can’t resist the shop’s dairy delights, lactose intolerance be damned. (His favorite Bigg Chill order is the fat- and gluten-free vanilla classic fro-yo with vegan sugar cookie dough and Reese’s peanut butter sauce.)
“I heard that there was a big commotion . on Twitter, and I just wanted to show my support,” he told The Times, musing that Lovato neglected to consider “the big picture” when sharing her thoughts on Instagram. “They have vegan cookie dough, and it’s some of the best we’ve had in the city, so we just want to come and get our favorite treat.”
Like Li, much of Tuesday’s clientele was already familiar with the Bigg Chill prior to Lovato’s social media takedown. But the occasional dead giveaway revealed some first-timers: Only a Bigg Chill noob, for example, would exclaim, “Oh no, it’s cash only!” upon reaching the front of the line. Rookie mistake.
Before reading Lovato’s comments in The Times, Rusen Seran had never heard of the Bigg Chill. A fro-yo lover, the 32-year-old assistant hotel manager decided to make the 25-minute trip from West Hollywood and give the shop “a chance,” despite harboring doubts about its most popular menu items. (Cookie dough is not his go-to topping.)
Feeling the chill, Demi Lovato apologizes for blasting an L.A. frozen-yogurt shop
Singer Demi Lovato slammed L.A. fro-yo shop the Bigg Chill for what she called promoting toxic diet culture. The store, and its many fans, hit back.
“[Lovato] can type anything on her social media,” Seran said. “I’m not protesting her. Maybe I will have the same idea [as] her after visiting here.”
A mix of Bigg Chill virgins and veterans, Jonathan Amar and his friends stopped by the fro-yo shop Tuesday night for a reward after rock climbing nearby. While growing up in Pacific Palisades, the 22-year-old software engineer frequented the Bigg Chill because it boasted “the best fro-yo,” including kosher options for his family.
The young climbers “always have a hard time finding dessert places” because one of them can’t eat dairy, said Romana Maralit of Beverlywood. (The 24-year-old claims specialist said she recently crowned the Big Chill “best soft serve” over Disneyland in her personal power rankings.)
“Having a lot of options — especially in a big city — is kind of necessary to keep your brand going,” said 25-year-old Jennifer Beatty, the anti-dairy member of the group who is pursuing a PhD in marine biology at the University of Southern California. “There’s certain . ice cream places that I don’t go to because I know they don’t have vegan options.”
Though she sympathized with Lovato’s disdain for diet culture, 22-year-old Quinn McGannon of Westchester thought the “Dancing with the Devil” artist‘s move to single out the Bigg Chill was counterproductive. Plus, McGannon can always count on the shop’s animal-friendly alternatives when her vegan sister comes to town.
“I think [Lovato] was attacking the . wrong thing,” said McGannon, an international relations student at Loyola Marymount University. “If you want to come for diet culture, maybe go for the corporations who make millions off of it and not the small, local businesses who are just trying to get by during a pandemic.”
Despite the store’s popularity, Russell confirmed that the public health crisis has hit the Bigg Chill hard. Before COVID-19 arrived, it employed a rotating staff of 17. That number has since dwindled to seven, with former employees afraid to return to the front lines of the food service industry. The store has also been forced to reduce its hours, now operating from 2 to 10 p.m.
“They all left . they were terrified. I will eventually go back” to pre-pandemic hours of operation, Russell said. “It’s gonna take some time.”
The limited Bigg Chill staff was also the subject of Lovato’s ire this week as the Grammy nominee berated the business for “terrible” service contributing to an overall “triggering and awful” experience. But Tuesday’s regulars told a different story.
“It’s very difficult for a place like this to maintain a family feel and generate the kind of business that they do,” said 58-year-old Sukha Gildart, a dance instructor at UCLA who has been coming to the Bigg Chill for 27 years and knows its employees on a first-name basis. “This place has been home. It’s been heart. It’s been a place to return to.”
“The customer service is always really nice,” echoed Will, a 22-year-old international relations student at LMU who requested his last name be omitted. “The staff is very attentive, and even if you come toward the end of the day . they never make you feel bad for coming in toward close, so it’s just a really welcoming atmosphere.”
Froyo магазин кто владелец
mv2.png/v1/crop/x_1,y_0,w_1079,h_1350/fill/w_481,h_602,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/DSC00508.png» alt=»DSC00508.png» width=»481″ height=»602″ />
Story of
Froyo
The idea behind Froyo started in 2010 when a driven entrepreneur, Engineer Mohammed Hassan Sarkhouh, decided to go into the F&B market with an ingenious concept that focuses on frozen yogurt.
Within a short period of time, Froyo managed to acquire a great share of the market and was successful in consolidating its name amongst some of the biggest franchises.
Froyo’s quick and steady expansion is deservedly attributed to Engineer Sarkhouh's long expertise in the field of FMCG and restaurant management. Since 2004, he held several positions in pioneering food companies in Kuwait.
What first started in 2010 as one branch operated by 10 employees is now a prosperous chain of 7 branches with 400+ team members overlooking management and the operation, with an aspiration for further expansion and attainment.
About
Froyo
Since its establishment in 2010, Froyo has been inventive about the natural and delicious recipes it provides. Froyo’s yogurt is fresh, non-fat, and with no added sugar or preservatives.
Besides frozen yogurt, Froyo has been keen on developing the most exquisite desserts that are made daily from scratch in Froyo’s kitchen.
Froyo offers the best premium frozen delights that will surely warm your heart; starting from the irresistible yogurt flavors and delicious fresh toppings to the outstanding designs of Froyo’s branches and the unparalleled service. It will all lead you to have an enjoyable one of a kind experience that will rejuvenate your world.
mv2.png/v1/fill/w_498,h_623,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/DSC00518.png» alt=»DSC00518.png» width=»498″ height=»623″ />
Inside Farrah Abraham's Froyo Empire
Frozen yogurt and sex don't really go together. There's an argument to be made for other sweets—whipped cream is conventional, chocolate is luxuriously drippy, bananas are phallic. But froyo, in addition to being sticky, is cold. Plus, it's a dish best served with toppings.
Anyway, Farrah Abraham—multihyphenate reality television star and entrepreneur—wouldn't recommend mixing the two. Or at least that's what she has to say regarding reviewers who mention her past in the comments of the Yelp page of FroCo Fresh & Frozen, the froyo franchise she founded and opened in May of this year.
"They think I'm still years ago, [like] I'm doing sex tapes or something," she tells me. "I mean, I don't know what they're doing. They're probably having sex in their own lives, but frozen yogurt and sex are two different things."
Farrah Abraham, left, at the opening of a FroCo shop. Photo courtesy of FroCo.
Certainly, there's what feels like a separation of church and state at the franchise's flagship, located in an upscale strip mall in the suburban hills of Lakeway, Texas, just outside of Austin.
The shop's sparkling tiled walls and purple, blue, and yellow color scheme are clearly designed to attract the interest of young kids, as is Coba the Popping Boba—the jolly, official FroCo mascot whose plush, round frame sits in stacked pyramids behind the toppings bar. In one corner, there's a standing white board easel where kids can—and have—doodled to their sugar-hopped heart's content. Near the entrance, there's some boxes collecting canned food for a local drive. This is a place for families, not sex. It's your typical froyo scene.
Unlike almost every other product Farrah has put out—the pasta sauce line, the branded webcam site, the erotic fiction series—there's no mention of her celebrity anywhere at FroCo. Just walking in, you'd have no idea that it was built, from the ground up, with the profits of a personal brand set into motion by a reality television show predicated on unprotected, teenage sex. Unless you checked those Yelp reviews.
Or happened to stop in in the midst of filming. The store continues to be tied to the MTV Teen Mom franchise with appearances on Teen Mom OG season six, the finale of which premiered this month. Over the 15-episode series arc, Abraham hosts its grand opening, forces her dad to don the Coba mascot suit, and fires a FroCo employee. The eye-obscuring glasses she wears throughout the show have already sold out once, according to Farrah.
A plush version of Coba, FroCo’s boba mascot. Photo courtesy of FroCo.
Froyo may seem off-brand for someone formerly referred to as "Backdoor Teen Mom," but Farrah has long had an interest in the culinary arts, attending classes for culinary management at both Metropolitan Community College and the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. Her entrepreneurial drive dates back even further to her childhood, when she—as she likes to tell it—outdid a neighborhood boy's lemonade stand with bigger cups, cheaper prices, a strawberry flavor, and a purple wig, ever the entertainer.
Why her interests centered on froyo specifically is less clear. She tells me that "God or something" sent down the idea for Coba, an animated froyo topping, to lead a brand. This was after she applied—and was approved, according to her—for franchising with established brands like Menchie's and Sweet Frog, who expressed concern about her celebrity. (The brands didn't respond to requests for comment.)
But "concern about her celebrity" seems to just fuel Farrah. Negativity is the through-line of her brand, the secret sauce that has helped her transform lemons into soft-serve sorbet.
"I think I leveraged negativity better than many people, and I think once you have that then you have the power to do anything that you want, regardless of you having sex and people know you have sex," says Abraham. I ask if her sex tape was premeditated to achieve the kind of success that would allow her to open a froyo franchise, à la the Kim Kardashian empire narrative. No, she says, it wasn't. And also "good for her."
Just like the sex tape flack, or the "nasty" and "totally fake" Yelp reviews alleging employee abuse, or an interviewer assuming her commissioned sex tape was calculated, Abraham's otherwise incohesive brand is unified by such an approach to negativity.
In fact, it's one of FroCo's founding principles. The brand's mission statement is "Passion + Positivity. Keep it popping." So far, things are continuing to pop for Farrah as she begins her pivot from sex symbol to family-friendly franchisee and entrepreneurial empire overseer, somehow managing the cognitive dissonance inherent in those positions.
When we meet over non-fat, no-sugar-added, cake-batter-flavored froyo (my choice) and a banana flambé and toasted marshmallow froyo swirl (her Sunday special), she has just come from the grand opening of a new children's boutique, Sophia Laurent, and a new furniture store, Furnished by Farrah. In the works, she has plans for a book about entrepreneurship, as well as a full-service restaurant with a similarly positive message of harmony and flow.
And, according to Abraham, next year will see a FroCo froyo franchise expansion with interest in outposts coming from South Carolina, California, and Louisiana.
"You can never regain the same success doing the same thing over and over," says Abraham. "It's just like, I love that I can do anything now in any category."
ORIGINAL REPORTING ON EVERYTHING THAT MATTERS IN YOUR INBOX.
By signing up, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy & to receive electronic communications from Vice Media Group, which may include marketing promotions, advertisements and sponsored content.
Demi Lovato reflects on frozen yogurt drama: ‘I’m still learning’
Thanks for contacting us. We've received your submission.
Demi Lovato is working on educating themselves after they faced backlash for criticizing a small frozen yogurt shop. Getty Images; Instagram
More On: demi lovato
Joe Jonas’ full relationship history: From Taylor Swift to Sophie Turner
Why Demi Lovato feels most confident when she’s having sex
Demi Lovato’s greatest hits are bolder and brasher as rock anthems on ‘Revamped’ album
Demi Lovato goes rocker chic on the VMAs red carpet
Demi Lovato is working on themselves after facing scrutiny for their social media war with a small frozen yogurt shop in Los Angeles.
The “Cool for the Summer” singer, 28, said during an appearance on “Audacy Check In” via Facebook Live on Thursday that their “emotions got the best of” them during their heated exchanges with The Bigg Chill because they were “so passionate” about calling out diet culture.
“Every time I’ve made a statement over Instagram or Twitter, I felt like it’s gotten lost in translation a little bit,” they said. “It was me talking about something I was very passionate about pertaining to the diet culture, and I realized that because I was so passionate … I let my emotions get the best of me and it didn’t allow me to explain where I was coming from as easily as it would have been on a podcast.”
Lovato, who came out as non-binary in May, noted that they want to “have conversations where people can see my face, they can hear my voice and they can see that I’m still learning” to avoid a miscommunication.
“I’m by no means an expert on many, many things,” they added. “But, I’m willing to learn about it and I’m willing to continue to have conversations that either educate me or others on how to make the world a better place.”
Lovato first called out the California froyo shop for offering sugar-free products in April, claiming that seeing the selection had “triggered” them.
“When I messaged this froyo place, originally I wanted to make a point, and I wanted to call out behaviors or branding things that didn’t sit right with me,” they said. “As someone who deals with an eating disorder and is in recovery from an eating disorder, I still to this day have a hard time walking into a froyo shop, ordering yogurt and being content with it and keeping it down.”
Lovato explained that while they were in the store, it “wasn’t clear” to them that all of the “diet” and “health food” options were “for specific health needs.”
“Because it wasn’t clear, I definitely jumped to conclusions and probably shouldn’t have gone about this the way that I have, but I’m willing to talk to this froyo shop to help get the messaging right,” they offered.
The Grammy nominee has been open about their struggles with bulimia and body image in the past, even revealing that an old manager had worsened their struggles by hiding food and sugar from them. They also claimed they were not allowed to eat cake on their birthday.
Lovato recently asked fans to stop complimenting them on their weight loss because it triggered them as well.