For a while, I was really obsessed with Philly cheese steaks. So obsessed, in fact, that on Friday nights, I would take the Acela from Penn Station to Philadelphia so I could get my hands on a cheese steak from Geno’s. Since riding the train for 3 hours is not something I’m going to do on a regular basis, I need to find a place the satisfy my cravings for globs of cheese, meat, and white bread. 99 Miles to Philly is one of my favorite places to go, but since it’s not in a good location for me (and delivery is sometimes too slow), I need to find something closer and more convenient. BB Sandwich Bar, located in Greenwich village, is walking distance from Chris’ house, so I was really excited to hear they have great (but unconventional) cheese steaks. The place is owned and operated by Gary Thompson, who came up with the idea after closing his upscale restaurant following 9/11. Thompson only sells one thing - cheese steaks:

However, he shares the space with Tonnie’s, a cupcake store:

We were there for the cheese steaks, but the cupcakes were tempting (another time, I had to tell myself, another time).

BB Sandwich Bar’s cheese steaks aren’t served on a baguette or hoagie bread, it’s served on a poppyseed kaiser roll (it’s round! blasphemy!). The special ingredients of Bb’s sandwich are the caramelized onions (which are marinated for a minimum of FOUR hours) and Thompson’s “special sauce,” which is a ketchup-based relish that he makes himself. The result is a tasty sandwich:

It’s definitely not a conventional cheese steak (I wouldn’t even CALL it a cheese steak), but it’s satisfying and the flavors work together really well. The white American cheese is creamy and tastes so milky and delicious and brings the sandwich’s different flavors together. If you want to try recreating the recipe, go here.

BB Sandwich Bar is cheap ($5.00) and they make it even cheaper for NYPD/FDNY/NYU students ($3.50). I’ll definitely be calling again to satiate my cravings for cheese steaks.

How to get to BB Sandwich Bar:

BB Sandwich Bar
120 W 3rd Street between 6th Avenue and MacDougal Street
New York, NY 10012
212-473-7500

Luckily, three yogurt shops were all in the same area so we didn’t have to walk too much (it was SOOO cold!! Whose great idea was it to plan the FRO-YOLYMPICS for December?!). After our disappointing trip to Red Mango, we walked to Yolato, a hybrid of yogurt and gelato. Yolato is gaining populartiy in New York (there are currently 5 locations in the NY/NJ area with plans to open 3 more in 2008). They carry a lot of different items - all kinds of gelatos, crepes, and coffees/teas. I like how their diverse menu, but I’ve never gotten around to trying anything except their frozen yogurt!

Yolato’s bright storefront:

1. Size of the hole:

The hole was an acceptable size and no one complained of hollowness.

2. Tanginess vs. creaminess: On a scale from 1 to 5 (one being tangy and five being creamy), Yolato scored a 3.5, being slightly more creamy than tangy.

3. Topping Variety:I would’ve taken a picture, but everything was in the back (there are 5 fruit options and 5 cereal/dry options). They used to have cherries on the list of toppings, but they never had them in the store. Their special topping is toffee, but I prefer fruit on my frozen yogurt.

4. Fruit Quality: On a scale of one to five (one being over/under ripe and five being perfectly ripe), Yolato scored a 3.5 - toppings weren’t superb, but they were better than average.

5. Calories per ounce: Yolato had 26 calories/ounce.

6. Price per ounce: Yolato clocked in at 90 cents/ounce.

7. Atmosphere/quality of service: There was no music playing at Yolato and there are only three or four seats in the shop, so it seems like it’s more of a take out place. They deliver, but I’m not sure frozen yogurt/gelato travels well!

8. Iciness vs. Smoothness: On a scale of one to five (one being icy and five being smooth), we rated Yolato a 4; Yolato is more of a gelato-frozen yogurt hybrid and retains a lot of the smoothness from gelato.

9. Number of flavors: there is only ONE flavor at Yolato (plain) but they do offer lots of gelato.

10. Resilience to heat:

Yolato was VERY resilient to heat and didn’t melt at all!

11. Topping Quantity/Presentation:

Even though there were only 5 blackberries (like Red Mango), we all felt like we were eating more (probably because our bowl had so much frozen yogurt we overlooked our stingy portion of blackberries).

Ariel and Gloria were NOT impressed with Yolato’s frozen yogurt, however, the rest of us thought it was pretty good. Gloria though it tasted like expensive soap, but I’m don’t think anyone else felt the same. The spoon size was unacceptable (they were gelato spoons) and it was SO difficult to grab fruit with the small spoons. Overall, Yolato scored a 2.75/5.0, which was a little unexpected (I’ve never thought Yolato was SUPERB, but 2.75 is disappointingly low). We’ll be taking a break for the weekend, but will return on Monday to head to 40 Carrots!

Here are all of the entries in order (in case you wanted to jump around):

Day 1: Oko
Day 2: Pinkberry
Day 3:Red Mango
Day 4: Yolato
Day 5: 40 Carrots
Day 6: Very Berry
Day 7: Flurt
Day 8: Berry Wild Smooth and Kindy Icy
Day 9: Crazy Bananas

Welcome to the third day of our frozen yogurt tour. I hope you’ve enjoyed our posts - we have a lot more to come! After we finished our yogurt at Pinkberry, we headed across the street to Red Mango. To give you a little history, Red Mango was started by a bunch of investment bankers in Korea back in 2002. It’s the first yogurt store to get the approval from The National Yogurt Association to Use Their Live and Active Culture Seal, which is a great accomplishment since everyone claims to have active cultures, but Red Mango actually has proof. They’re known for being the “authentic frozen yogurt” shop; in every Red Mango, there are a bunch of signs noting the health benefits of consuming their yogurt. The FROYOLYMPICS committee decided to wait until Red Mango officially opened before starting our tour (otherwise, we wouldn’t be giving our readers a true comparison of all the yogurt shops in New York).

Red Mango’s storefront:

Yay! More people joined!

1. Size of the hole:

The hole at Red Mango was surprisingly small and there was good yogurt coverage. Go Red Mango!

2. Tanginess vs. creaminess: On a scale from 1 to 5 (one being tangy and five being creamy), Red Mango scored a 1.5…more tangy than creamy (although I’ve been to Red Mango numerous times since the tour and I think it’s definitely become more creamy than tangy).

3. Topping Variety:

Red Mango had lots of toppings, including dark chocolate chips and crushed graham crackers. They don’t have pomegranate seeds like a lot of other places (which actually taste really good with frozen yogurt).

4. Fruit quality: The fruit was fresh but there wasn’t a lot of it (you can read more about my fruit complaint in section 11). We gave Red Mango 4 out of 5 for quality.

5. Calories per ounce: each ounce of Red Mango had 23 calories.

6. Price per ounce: Red Mango was approximately 62 cents/ounce.

7. Atmosphere/quality of service: techno music was playing in the background while we were in the store and the temperature was a little colder than the other stores we’d visited during our tour. However, there are nice chairs for lounging around and a nice outdoor seating area for the summertime. There was a promotion going on during the tour, but the employees didn’t know about it (buy a $25 gift card, get a free small frozen yogurt with 3 toppings). Also, I purchased a gift card that was never activated, so they charged me $25 and when I went back, it didn’t work but I no longer had my receipt. That gets MAJOR BOO POINTS.

8. Iciness vs. smoothness: On a scale of one to five (one being icy and five being smooth), we rated Red Mango a 2.5 - it was a bit on the smooth side and tasted more like actual yogurt.

9. Number of flavors: there are 2 flavors at Red Mango - original and green tea.

10. Resilience to heat:

There was not a lot of melting from Red Mango’s yogurt, but it was a lot colder there than the other yogurt shops.

11. Topping Quantity/Presentation:

There was a lot of frozen yogurt, but not a lot of fruit. Okay, I have a HUGE complaint with Red Mango’s customer service. We ordered blackberries with our frozen yogurt and we were only given FIVE blackberries. I asked for more (Oliver Twist style) and the server told me that he gives “five blackberries for a small, five for the medium, and five for the large,” meaning there was no way I was getting any more blackberries. BOO! WHO gives FIVE blackberries on a LARGE frozen yogurt? That is NOT nice. Also, I’d like to note that in this USA TODAY article, the server is giving WAY more than five blackberries.

We also ordered a Red Mango smoothie:

The Red Mango smoothie was WAY too sweet (it looked like they used a simple syrup to make the smoothie blendable). If Red Mango’s selling point is being the healthier alternative, they should use water or milk to blend the smoothie instead.

As you can see, we weren’t huge fans of Red Mango. Gloria met up with us at Red Mango and said that it tasted really powdery (Red Mango gets their yogurt mix from milk cartons that they pour into the yogurt dispenser). I didn’t appreciate the stinginess of the blackberry toppings and Chris thought the yogurt had an Asian grocery store aftertaste. If you’ve ever been to an Asian grocery store, you’ll know the smell. Personally, I think Asian grocery stores have an interesting freezer burn smell, but I’m not sure if Red Mango tasted like freezer burn. Overall, we were not impressed with Red Mango and gave them a 2.83/5.0. I was really disappointed with Red Mango’s score (especially since I’ve been a fan since day 1) but I think Red Mango was having a major off-day. Since then, I’ve been back a couple of times and the freezer burn taste is definitely gone, but the memory still haunts me. Tomorrow, we will explore Yolato!

Here are all of the entries in order (in case you wanted to jump around):

Day 1: Oko
Day 2: Pinkberry
Day 3:Red Mango
Day 4: Yolato
Day 5: 40 Carrots
Day 6: Very Berry
Day 7: Flurt
Day 8: Berry Wild Smooth and Kindy Icy
Day 9: Crazy Bananas

Our next stop on the frozen yogurt tour was Pinkberry. This is the place that I first encountered plain frozen yogurt; it’s the originator of the craze in the US (although Red Mango started the trend in Korea back in 2002). Pinkberry has had its fair share of controversy; last year, people claimed Pinkberry can’t actually be called “frozen yogurt” because their yogurt didn’t have enough live cultures. Also, who can forget all those mice running amok in the UES Pinkberry (all caught on film by a newscrew?) Even so, Chris and I spent all last summer going to Pinkberry every night because we love it so much. I never bothered trying other places because I thought Pinkberry was so great; I’ve had a very strong allegiance to Pinkberry (but we’ll see if that changes by the end of the tour!).

Pinkberry’s storefront (with Ariel and Chris!):

1. Size of the hole:

We noticed that the hole was not as large as usual; HOWEVER, someone that works at the K-town Pinkberry told me that there shouldn’t even BE a hole! AT ALL! Obviously Pinkberry needs to standardize their frozen yogurt practices. Tsk, tsk.

2. Tanginess vs. creaminess: On a scale from 1 to 5 (one being tangy and five being creamy), Pinkberry scored a 2 (which was expected; Pinkberry is known for being more tart and tangy than creamy).

3. Topping Variety:

Pinkberry has standard toppings (fruit and cereal) and for the winter, they bring out pomegranate seeds. One thing I don’t like about Pinkberry is that they hide their mochi - why don’t you just put it on your menu or in front with everything else?! They also have lychees every once in a while.

4. Fruit Quality: On a scale of one to five (one being over/under ripe and five being perfectly ripe), Pinkberry scored a very sad 2 out of 5! We were kind of upset that there was still skin on the mangoes (that is sloppy!!) and it was definitely CRUNCHY! That means it’s not ripe!

5. Calories per ounce: after a bunch of calculations, I figured out that Pinkberry is about 20 calories/ounce. Pinkberry’s nutritional information is very misleading and a little difficult to figure out in your head.

6. Price per ounce: Pinkberry cost about 66 cents/ounce.

7. Atmosphere/quality of service: Pinkberry had some corny reggae Christmas music (which none of us were fans of) and the manager yelled at me for taking pictures, even though EVERYONE takes pictures in there! Actually, the topping variety picture was taken after a frozen yogurt specialist asked me to stop taking pictures (I asked to speak to his manager and when he went to the backroom to find the head honcho, I snapped the picture). The manager came out and told us that we could take pictures OUTSIDE the store, but not inside. Thanks for giving us permission to take pictures on PUBLIC PROPERTY!

8. Iciness vs. Smoothness: On a scale of one to five (one being icy and five being smooth), we rated Pinkberry a 3; a perfect combination of iciness and smoothness!

9. Number of flavors: there are 3 flavors at Pinkberry - original, green tea, and coffee (which was introduced in the middle of January!

10. Resilience to heat:

There was some meltage, but overall, Pinkberry did well.

11. Topping Quantity/Presentation:

We were slightly disappointed with the presentation because there simply wasn’t enough fruit on our yogurt (especially after a trip to Oko, where they seriously put an entire mango on our frozen yogurt!). Also, they only gave us 3 blackberries, which is extremely stingy.

Pinkberry is known for having an icier consistency, but we all noticed that it was smoother than usual; Red Mango opened up a couple weeks ago across the street and maybe Pinkberry is starting to emulate the competition!! We weren’t impressed with Pinkberry’s frozen yogurt OR their service. We gave Pinkberry a final score of 3.5/5.0. Tomorrow, we will explore Red Mango and see if the grass is greener on the other side (of the street). Stay tuned!

Here are all of the posts in order (if you wanted to jump around):
Day 1: Oko
Day 2: Pinkberry
Day 3:Red Mango
Day 4: Yolato
Day 5: 40 Carrots
Day 6: Very Berry
Day 7: Flurt
Day 8: Berry Wild Smooth and Kindy Icy
Day 9: Crazy Bananas

After catching the majority of Top Chef Season three, I’ve slowly become a fan of the crazy reality show (they’re currently taping season 4 in Chicago). I watched a couple episodes from season one and season two, but it’s one of those shows you watch when they have marathons, you know? Anyway, Harold Dieterle won season one and used his prize money to open Perilla in May 2007, a stylish restaurant in the west village. I’ve walked by Perilla a bunch of times (on my way to John’s Pizzeria or Pearl Oyster Bar), but I didn’t notice the small restaurant lining Jones Street until recently.

Large booths, a couple of four-top tables, and a small bar make Perilla for a small get together or a first date. The interior decor is minimal and welcoming and is a great addition to the west village. The hostess seated us immediately (not many people go to Perilla for lunch, apparently, because the restaurant was almost empty). The menu has a couple of options of unpretentious items, but there were only three things that interested us: the duck burger, the cubano, and the french toast. We ended up choosing the first two:

The duck burger has a layer of perfectly melted cheese (don’t you hate it when there’s a layer of grease on top of the cheese?), pickles, tomato, and Boston lettuce that all sits perfectly on top of a big bits of spicy duck. YUM. I’m used to Peking duck and have been disappointed with other ways people prepare duck, but Harold’s burger definitely makes me rethink the way I eat duck.

I ordered Harold’s Cubano:

To tell you the truth, I wasn’t impressed with the pressed sandwich AT ALL. It tasted like something I could ordered at Zabar’s a while back. Also, once you try the Spotted Pig’s cubano, there’s no way to eat another sandwich without getting the feeling that it’s inadequate. I didn’t really enjoy the sandwich but the side salad that came with my order was nicely dressed. I can never get my greens to stay so fluffy after I dress them - they always end up wilty looking (it looks like I cooked them or something). How do restaurants do it?

Overall, the experience at Perilla was very nice and I’d go back for dinner in the future, but probably not again for brunch. It’s convenient to make a reservation through opentable.com, but you can always call to make a reservations as well (I like opentable because I’ve thisclose to getting something for free!!)

How to get to Perilla:

Perilla
9 Jones St between 4th Street and Bleecker
New York, NY 10014
212-929-6868