Fast Growing Culture at Moolala Yogurt Café

Less than two months since its grand opening, Merokeans have quickly embraced the culture of self-serve frozen yogurt at Moolala Yogurt Café. 

From the time it opens at 11 a.m. until closing at 11 p.m., this small unassuming yogurt café is constantly busy. Come during any evening, especially between 7:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., even during the weekday, and chances are the café is bustling.

It works basically like this:

1. Grab a cup.
2. Review the 12 flavors du jour. Moolala rotates flavors to keep things interesting. Popular choices include: cookies 'n cream, red velvet cake, mango tango, pomegranate raspberry and for purists there's chocolate, vanilla bean and plain.  Not sure what you want? Ask for a sample. Moolala's staff is happy to oblige.
3. Help yourself by pulling the levers on the yogurt machines of choice.  Combine flavors if you want.  Moolala encourages creativity. 
4. Next up, choose your preferred toppings from the myriad of options available from fresh fruit, sprinkles, cookie crumbs, gummi bears, candy, and even exotic Japanese mochi. Add a squirt or two of gourmet syrup.
5. Weigh your creation.  You'll pay by the ounce.

When Patch last saw owner Bob Rosenberg, Moolala was still just a dream in progress. We wanted to find out how things were going since he launched his brainchild, the first self-serve yogurt café on Long Island.

"It's been incredible," says Rosenberg, "We've had a great reception by the Merrick community. We've had a lot of positive reaction to the concept and choices and quality of yogurt."

Rosenberg says Moolala's location in the Waldbaums/HomeGoods shopping center has been ideal in attracting a lot of foot traffic from shoppers, other retailers and their employees.

"It's what I envisioned," says Rosenberg. "I'm only surprised by how quickly people found us. Within two totthree days of opening we had customers and have been busy ever since. We've done very little advertising to start and so people have found us mostly by word of mouth."

Moolala offers a frequent customer reward card that gets punched with each purchase.  You earn a free yogurt on your 10th punch.

"We've given away thousands of rewards cards and have had to reprint them three times already," Rosenberg says. 

Moolala is seeing a lot of repeat visitors and Rosenberg and his staff are intent on being customer friendly.

"I'm getting to know our customers more and am really building relationships," he says.  "The people in Merrick are great.  They're very vocal and tell us what they like and also what they don't.  I like that. It gives us chance to improve." 

In fact, thanks to customer feedback, Moolala is adding a second register to help speed up the check out process.

What are some of the bestselling flavors at Moolala? According to Rosenberg: "Anything with cookie flavors is a hit. Our new cake batter flavor is fast rising to the number one spot as well as our new cookie dough topping."

What do the customers think?

Merrick resident Gina Katz is regular at Moolala.

"I come here a lot with my daughter, about once every other day," she says. "We like choosing our own flavors, the do it yourself aspect.  We also love the taste of the yogurt, its quality and flavors.  It's also healthy. My favorites are euro tart and pomegranate raspberry."

A lively group of young women who all work at Merrick Woods Camp sit together enjoying their Moolala. They explain that stopping in after work has become a regular past-time for these co-workers. When asked what they like about Moolala the girls eagerly shouted out their favorites:  

"The toppings!"

"We like sampling!"

 "The punch cards!" 

"The choices!"

The ladies say they have a regular contest to see who had the biggest sundae.  The winning concoction of the day was made with pomegranate raspberry and cookies 'n cream yogurt with gummi bear and gummi worm toppings.

"Plus mangos and fruit–to make it healthier," the winner explains, causing her friends to explode in a fit of laughter.