Pink

On Thursday night, I had the unusual experience of having a young woman I had just met offering excitedly -in plain earshot of several other people- to “pop my pink”. Trying not to appear flustered by this (as any Englishman would understandably be), I accepted. Ah, yes … I suppose I should explain.

Pinkberry is taking the city by storm (apparently, New York, not wanting to be left out, has got in on the act too). There’s a new Pinkberry not far off my route to and from work and since I was walking back from the bus stop late on Thursday night, I decided to pop in and see what all the fuss was about. It was full of people, which in and of itself is always a bit of a surprise in Los Angeles. Most times there’s just a few people in any business place. Regular exceptions are places like Apple Stores, Starbucks’ in certain locations and… Pinkberry.

Pinkberry is a manifestly (upon reflection, if perhaps you’ve been to Korea you’ll see what I mean immediately) Korean phenomenon. It’s cute, and in the decor it’s got large areas of simple, plain colours like pink and the sorts of greens and blues that I’ve only ever seen used in quantity in Korea. It is also very uncluttered. Except for the people. Pinkberry stores are full chock a block with people. The one over on Melrose in (essentially) West Hollywood apparently had to hire a doorman (or perhaps it was the West LA one) to help organize the line, which was out of the door and down the sidewalk. What are they in line for? Not to see Lindsay Lohan (some blogs I looked at did insist on breathlessly mentioning her frequenting one) – definitely not. It is because of a tasty – super tasty (people claim addictions to it…. comparisons to crack are made in jest, and juxtapose the blackberry/pinkberry thing as you might expect) – simple frozen yogurt base, with (typically) fresh fruit toppings. That’s it. People are going nuts for it. I walked in (immediately feeling like granddad, given the average age) and saw that this large group of people standing in one place was formed into a line. I had to check.

“Hi, is this a line?”
(Stupid question, I know, addressed to young woman in front of me.)

“Yes!”
(Cheerfully. She seemed as genuinely thrilled to be in a line as I was. It just does not happen that often here, in contrast to other cities where you often have to wait in line for almost anything…including to join another line.)

“Huh. Wow.”

“What, you’ve never been here before?”

“No, I’ve been meaning to, but I’m usually passing by on my bike and don’t want to stop. I’m walking today and so thought I’d check it out.”

“It’s great!”

“I see. Any recommendations?”

“Oh! Do I get to introduce you to Pinkberry? To pop your pink?!”

“Er… Yes…. Thanks.”

…I don’t know if the joke/pun/double-entendre is original to her, but it was a new usage to me, anyway. Well, she went on to recommend that I get: A Medium size… Original flavour, and this comes with three toppings, and I should have strawberry, some other fruit, and maybe something crunchy… like granola. For variety. I agreed that granola would certainly turn it into a complete meal, and opted for mango as the other fruit…. She steered me away from kiwi. (I have since gone back – Friday night (see? it has begun) – and had just kiwi as a topping and it is excellent, but on that first occasion I let her do the driving.)

We said goodbye and I walked mine home to be consumed close to where I would subsequently fall into a pleasant sleep after a full day.

Well. What can I say? Thanks, woman in the line (Lauren, I think her name was) for the recommendation for my first try. I enjoyed it very much. I’ll be sure to visit again…. and again… and again….

-cvj