Yogurt Palooza Coming to Northville This Summer

Frozen yogurt fanatics will soon have another place to dip their spoons into the soft-serve dessert. 

Yogurt Palooza, Plymouth's self-serve frozen yogurt store, will open in downtown Northville under MainCentre Apartments, at the corner of Main and Center streets, by the end of the summer.

“We wanted to open another location before we opened the first location," said co-owner Chris Tomei. "We started looking almost immediately, and it was a very tough search.”

Tomei and co-owner Craig Turk began looking in Northville because they felt it is very similar to Plymouth, but they weren’t able to find an available spot that fit their criteria until now. Tomei and Craig quickly jumped on this corner location as soon as it became available in late spring.

“We are locals. We grew up in Westland, so we are familiar with Northville and Plymouth, and that’s why we want to stay around here,” Tomei said.

“We just wanted the downtown feel," Turk said. "We didn’t want a strip mall location. We could have gone into a lot of different strip malls, but we didn’t want to because we think the downtown dynamic of people going out to dinner and walking around benefits our business.”

“Where most of the other yogurt stores have popped up in the area, we’ve already peeked in that window," Turk said. "We’ve already stood there and said no. We wanted something just like downtown Plymouth, and Northville is just like Plymouth for the most part.”

Due to the Plymouth location’s popularity and success, the Northville store will be set up very similarly, with just a few minor changes. 

“There really isn’t much to tweak, just little things, like changing the length of this counter top,” Tomei said.

Turk said, “We are going to keep the same theme. We just want it to be a little bit nicer and fine-tuned from what we did here in Plymouth.” 

While the new store will offer a lot of outdoor seating, traditional booth seating inside, and the same number of frozen yogurt toppings, it will also have a lounge area with couches. 

“The Northville location is basically the same size, but it is the corner spot with all glass. It’s a dream spot in Northville. We aren’t worried at all about filling the space because if you have ever been in here in the evening, you know it is a madhouse. There are no seats, and you almost can’t even move,” Turk said.

“Hundreds of people are going to come to our store every day that wouldn’t have normally come downtown Northville. It’s going to put a lot of energy into that little area," Tomei said.

Tomei and Turk hope to have the Northville store open by the end of the summer, but there are many variables that they can’t control, such as getting approval from the health department.

“Once we are within a few weeks of being open, we will start hiring," Turk said  "Since the sign has gone up in Northville, we have gotten tons of applications from people, specifically saying that they are looking to work at the new location.”

Not only do Tomei and Turk feel confident that the new store will contribute greatly to Northville by bringing more people into the town, but they also think that they will benefit from this location because they already have name recognition in Northville.

“A lot of people from Northville already come to Yogurt Palooza in Plymouth, so that is a great thing.  We just want to keep growing our business.  We are very fortunate to have lucked into these spots, just by being persistent and checking,” Tomei said.

Even though there are still a few weeks until Yogurt Palooza starts serving customers in Northville, Tomei and Turk already have plans for a third location.

“We are pretty close right now for a third sport," Turk said. "We are going to keep the location a secret, but we are very, very close.  All I will say is that it’s within twenty minutes of this area.”  

Have you been to Yogurt Palooza in Plymouth? Are you looking forward to having one in downtown Northville? Tell us in the comments.