Frannie”™s Goodie Shop in Yonkers Ridge Hill offers more than a dozen frozen yogurt flavors, three varieties of gelatos, two types of ice cream, smoothies, baked goods, confections and crepes.
Customers arm themselves with a cup and decide their own flavor combinations, the amount of frozen yogurt, the toppings and fruits to mix in, then pay based on the weight of their concoctions.
Business owners Frannie and Isi Albanese said the process excites the adults as much as it does the children who visit the store.
“It becomes a family activity, and we believe this is the Disney World of desserts,” Frannie Albanese said. “The most common reaction we get from customers is, ”˜I feel like a kid in a candy store.”™ And that”™s what we want. They come in here with childlike wonderment.”
Isi Albanese, who emigrated from Italy, said a mall-like location such as Ridge Hill is attractive for businesses, especially because it serves as a central meeting spot for people. The shop will be essential to bringing family and friends together, he said. Frannie agreed and calls the new location a “win-win situation” with the shopping options and movie theater.
“The store is set up to get high traffic,” Frannie said. “We”™re ready, and we want to cater to the visitors of Yonkers.”
Shelley Valiante drove from Trumbull, Conn., on a recent Thursday to shop spend the day with her friend Kim Diamond and their children. Frannie”™s was their last stop.
“We all piled into our Toyota Sequoia, which is the only car we had that would fit six kids,” Valiante said. “Now the kids are getting a sweet treat for the ride home.”
Frannie”™s first two stores, in Mount Kisco and Manhattan, have unique approaches and personal touches.
The Mount Kisco shop, which opened April 2011, creates a small-town community feel and provides a variety of dessert options. The Manhattan boutique shop, which opened last May, solely serves frozen yogurt in an upscale European hotel concourse and attracts out-of-towners.
Bringing people together through food has always been Frannie”™s dream.
As a child, Frannie Albanese enjoyed ordering burgers, fries and ice cream floats at the local Goodie Shop in Mount Kisco, which closed in the 1970s. She decided to revive that community spirit by starting her own food business.
“I wanted to take the spirit of the Goodie Shop with me,” Frannie said. “Even though we don”™t sell burgers, fries and ice cream floats like the Goodie Shop, we wanted it to be a place where people can create memories for a lifetime.”
Isi Albanese laid out the blueprints for the original location and sent it to a local architect Golden Group Connect. Isi Albanese also has an upscale pizza restaurant, Bellizzi, down the street from Frannie”™s Mount Kisco location.
In its first year of business, Frannie”™s in Mount Kisco took off. Kids would congregate outside the store on benches eating ice cream and frozen yogurt before summer camp began, and the elderly would come into the store on dates and try out the newest gelato flavors.
“The first year was incredible,” Isi Albanese said. “We were the first to open a major frozen yogurt shop in the Westchester area. Since then, within a five- to six-mile radius, there have been nine frozen yogurt places including ones in Yorktown, Scarsdale and Brewster.”
Isi said that business at the Mount Kisco location has dropped 20 percent from two years ago due to the increased competition in the “froyo” market.
The couple”™s trademarked frozen yogurt product YoArt, based in Oregon, is unique. The frozen yogurt, which contains calcium and probiotics, is a healthier choice than most other frozen desserts and much lighter than the yogurt served at other places, Isi Albanese said.
“I did some research and made the company calibrate the machine to put in more air,” he said. “Some places add more ice to make the frozen yogurt heavier. But we”™d rather have them love the product than make a little more money.”
The Albaneses have plans to expand their business even further, but they want to make sure they adequately train their employees in the newest store location.
“We have 30 people employed in this location including Frannie and me,” Isi Albanese said. “The biggest thing is teaching the managers and employees how to do different tasks like customer service and cleaning. Every person gets greeted with a smile, and we stress keeping the place immaculate. We even have one person whose only job is to sweep and mop when the store gets busy.”
Twice a year, Frannie”™s gives 1percent of its sales to local charities over a six-month period. This year, the owners will give a portion of their profits made in the Ridge Hill location to Yonkers Partners in Education, a nonprofit that bridges corporations with students and help them set goals for their education and careers.
“We”™re giving back to the Ridge Hill Academy, which has a program that brings kids to businesses like ours, so they can see firsthand what it means to be entrepreneurs,” Frannie Albanese said.
