Prepare for Fro-yo Wars in Mill Valley

I stopped by the new Swirl frozen yogurt store on Miller Avenue at the weekend. It's one of the self-serve operations where you can combine different flavors in a carton and then pile on a hundred different toppings. Nice stuff - but gets pricey if you fill the carton up. The store is at 417 Miller Avenue in the space previously occupied by the Lolipop cup cake store.

I wonder if "fro-yo frenzy" will become the 2010 version of the "cup cake craze" of 2008? Two years ago Lolipop opened at the same time as Frosting Bake Shop, another cup cake store, in downtown Mill Valley, and the Teacake Bakeshop in Corte Madera. Suddenly there were more cup cake shops than you could shake a stick at, and it was clear they wouldn't all survive. So there was a sense of deja-vu today when I read in the IJ that another self-serve fro-yo store, Yolo Yogurt Lounge was preparing to open just one block away in the new Tamalpais Commons development at 505 Miller.

Good luck to both stores, because I think they'll need it.