On the Town: Yo Waffle

Winter break is right around the corner. Money's tight, and you need to ask that cutie from your lecture class on a date before the semester is up. There are plenty of cheap date options in Missoula, but — to guarantee a little something-something at the start of next semester — the date has to leave a lasting impression.

Show off by taking your date to Yo Waffle, a treat that you have to work for. A recent national phenomenon, do-it-yourself frozen yogurt joints hand the serving and scooping over to the customer.

"I looked at the concept and loved it. It just seemed it would fit Missoula really well," owner Daryl Kaufmann said. "It's not just for the college campus. It's for everyone, and everyone loves it."

The project starts when you walk in the door: choose between a cup, waffle cone or a straight-up waffle. Loop around to the shining frozen yogurt dispensers to choose between ten flavors, which rotate every five or six days. Chocolate and vanilla are constant, next to eggnog, honey lavender tart and watermelon. Between each of the five machines, is an option to swirl the two flavors it contains. Butter brickle and root beer float, anyone?

Now breathe, because after you determine which yogurt flavors make it into your creation, you have to choose from 65 different toppings and syrups.

You have the liberty to stack it up and pack it in, something employee and University of Montana junior Margaret Cobb said people appreciate about the business.

"They can choose," she said. "It's all up to them."

At the end of the picking and planning, a Yo Waffle employee weighs the cup, cone or waffle on a scale and charges based on weight. The average creation is between $3 and $4, but Cobb said she has seen a packed 32-ounce cup go for $13.

"People learn to come back and only top it with two or three instead of ten or fifteen toppings," Kaufmann said. "It all looks so good when you're standing there."

If all these options seem a bit overwhelming, Cobb offered her favorite combination: original tart frozen yogurt topped with white chocolate chips, honey, raspberries and granola.

elizabeth.duffy@umontana.edu