Business Profile: Yogolicious, A Flavorful Hangout for Harrison Youngsters and Families
By Jon Craig
Fun, family, flavor.
Those are just three of the key ingredients that make Yogolicious a sweet success. And three’s the charm for the family-owned business, which opened its third Yogolicious shop at 117 Lake St. in West Harrison in October.
Located at the corner of Gainsborg Avenue, across from Passidomo Veterans Memorial Park and Silver Lake Pool, Yogolicious has plenty of parking. It’s reminiscent of the ice cream hangouts of the 1970s and 1980s where many of the current customers’ parents or grandparents once frequented. There’s plenty of cheerful, colorful space to socialize in, and it’s become an extremely popular place to meet after school.
But this isn’t their grandparents’ shop technologically speaking. Children can use iPads along the store’s front window as they watch out for their friends along Lake Street. The iPads are loaded with child-appropriate computer games.
Yogolicious is owned and operated by Jennifer and Enzo Paternostro, longtime Pleasantville residents. They have four children, ages 18, 17, 9 and 8.
Jennifer Paternostro said she’s received a warm welcome from many in Harrison. “You hear such nice things from everyone in this town,” she said. “The people have been so supportive here.”
The Paternostros opened their first store, on Marble Avenue in Pleasantville, in April 2012. Their second store opened on North State Road in Briarcliff in March 2013. The West Harrison store opened last fall in time for the Columbus Day Fair.
The store offers a non-dairy sorbet — last week it was watermelon — and its non-sugar flavor was praline. Chocolate and vanilla are perennial favorites. Other popular flavors are cookies and cream and cake batter. At 59 cents an ounce, you can get away with plenty of rainbow sprinkles. The store sells 15 flavors of self-serve frozen yogurt and more than 50 toppings. New toppings are rotated each week by popular demand. The store includes a candy bar, which Jennifer said “definitely was my husband’s idea.” As a property manager for Morgan Stanley, Enzo also was an expert at selecting the store’s potential locations, according to his wife.
Unique to the West Harrison location is gelato. They also sell smoothies and milkshakes. A niece, Jaime Lorenzo, is manager of the West Harrison shop.
Paternostro said the couple got the idea for Yogolicious about nine years ago. The former dental hygienist wanted to do something that was fun for kids. “If you don’t enjoy your job you’re never going to make it,” she said, while carting in supplies from the Restaurant Depot in Port Chester. “Friday night comes and everyone runs in.”
“It’s a long day for us,” she said. “You’d be surprised how many people come late at night.”
Yogolicious is open seven days a week, Monday through Friday from 12:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday from noon to 10 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 9 p.m. Weekend hours may be extended this summer.
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.
