The Bigg Chill — A Deep-Dive on LA’s Favorite Frozen Yogurt

Before I moved to LA from Spain in 2015, my only reference when it came to frozen yogurt in the US was Pinkberry. 

Advertised as a low-calorie and much healthier alternative to ice cream, frozen yogurt, also known as froyo, was introduced in the US in the 70s.

What are the health benefits of frozen yogurt?

A decade later, the sales of frozen yogurt were boosted by the 80s fitness craze — but by the 90s, the popularity started to dwindle. Fast-forward to January 2005, the year when Pinkberry was born. It’s important to acknowledge how Pinkberry changed the frozen yogurt culture before I dive into The Bigg Chill. 

Whenever I’d visit NY in the summers, I would go to Pinkberry. However, visiting a Pinkberry in NY in the mid to late 2000s was very different than visiting one in Los Angeles. Before expanding across the states, the first Pinkberry opened on Huntley Drive, a residential street off of Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood. 

The best marketing strategy for Pinkberry was celebrities. If you Google “Pinkberry celebrities”, you’ll see the amount of well-known people that frequented this place. Celebrities like Kim Kardashian were seen on a regular basis leaving the store holding the white cup with Pinkberry’s signature green logo. Marketing 101!

I also remember seeing Pinkberry a few times on the MTV show, The Hills, which was a pop-culture defining show. To say that the Pinkberry craze took Los Angeles by storm is a big understatement.

A 2006 article from Los Angeles Times, reported that 1,000 parking tickets were issued when the first store opened in West Hollywood. At the time, Pinkberry received the moniker “Crackberry”. 

“Pinkberry addicts come from Los Feliz, the Valley, South Bay and Beverly Hills to get their fix. They circle their cars around the neighborhood looking for parking and wait patiently in 20-minute lines that have been known to go up the block and around the corner.” – Deborah Netburn (LATimes)

In the article, a resident said: “The bottom line is the customers that go to Pinkberry don’t mind paying $68 for a tub of yogurt. It’s all Escalades and Mercedes and BMWs. You tell them, ‘Don’t park here,’ and they do. They can afford it.”

Back in 2005, Pinkberry only offered two flavors: plain tart and green tea, the first one being their most popular — and the one I always got! The interior, with the brand’s signature bright green color and clean design, were a huge part of the Pinkberry experience.

The Yelp reviews from 2006 are hilarious! Some people compared it to going to the club because of the security guard and the line divider. Given the wild success of Pinkberry in LA, other copycat chains emerged, like Kiwiberri. When Pinkberry started expanding in LA, another chain that popped up was Snowberry. In other words, Los Angeles was froyo heaven in the mid-2000s. 

Some Yelp reviews from 2006/2007:

“Los Feliz gets a Pinkberry but East Hollywood gets a SnowBerry. Why does this not surprise me?”

“Wow! Another frozen yogurt place that has a name that end with a “berry”. Big shock right?”

“If you hate Pinkberry, then brace yourself for another sneak attack. Because it looked Kiwiberri is another froyo chain popping up all over town.”

Below is an article from 2007, where the blogger Militant Angeleno talked about the insane influx of frozen yogurt places in LA. 

Most trends die, and in the mid 2010s, the frozen yogurt craze waned. Between 2014 and 2018, Pinkberry shut down over 70 locations across the states. The remaining Pinkberry in Hollywood, which was located on Sunset Blvd., closed its doors a few years ago. 

The times I’ve been to the remaining Pinkberries in LA have felt ominous. They’re usually empty and the flavors are too sugary. I’ve been frequenting the Studio Plaza on Ventura Blvd. since I moved to LA. This area is very family-oriented, but it shocks me to see that this Pinkberry is still there because it’s always empty. How do they stay afloat? I see more families at a nearby Menchies or Yogurtland, which some people have claimed are better than Pinkberry because they’re cheaper and the cups are bigger.

With this being said, amid the crazy froyo trend of the mid-2000s, there is one yogurt shop in Westwood that has weathered the ups and downs since it opened in 1990, The Bigg Chill. 

Going to The Bigg Chill is a very different experience than stepping foot into a Pinkberry or a Menchie’s. The neon sign is very reminiscent of an era I didn’t get to live in, but evokes a deep sense of nostalgia nonetheless. The employees have also been working there for ages.  

When I went there at the end of last year, an elderly men was standing behind me. The line was out the door. “This looks like the movie theater!” he said joyfully. 

The Bigg Chill was established in 1986 and was bought by the current owners Cary Russell and her mother Diane Dinow in 1990. 

During the boom of Pinkberry, The Bigg Chill’s revenue dropped by 30 percent. 

But, despite the domination of Pinkberry in LA and the pandemic, The Bigg Chill has emerged stronger and more popular than ever. According to Los Angeles Magazine, between March and June of 2020, The Bigg Chill was the fifth most popular restaurant on Postmates. Three years later, it’s still among Postmates’ Top Eats. 

Need I say more about the impact and legacy of The Bigg Chill? If this isn’t enough, they have their own Wikipedia page. Over the years, the owners Cary and Diane have declined multiple offers to franchise it. According to Wikipedia, in 2011, the store received about 1,000 customers a day, and up to 1,300 on the weekends. I’ve gone to The Bigg Chill during the week, and it’s insane the amount of people that I’ve seen picking up orders! There were a few times when no one was ahead of me, but then five minutes later a big line had formed behind me.

The Bigg Chill offers a wide array of flavors that cater to different dietary needs: fat free, vegan and carbolite (this one is low calorie, fat and cholesterol free). The bolded flavors are permanent, and the handwritten ones are rotational and change every Tuesday and Friday. For the dairy-free flavor, they only offer one at a time. You can also find the full menu on their Instagram stories.

Funnily enough, their Chill Berry flavor was made specifically to compete with Pinkberry! It’s the same tart and sour signature flavor from Pinkberry, but better. 

Some of their rotational flavors are hit or miss for me. For example, a few days before this post went live, they had a flavor called Cake Batter, which was ok. One of the other flavors was fresh mango, which was insanely fresh and good. When in doubt, ask for samples! They also make froyo cookie sandwiches and froyo pies, which you can find in their fridge. These are very popular as well. If you want a custom froyo pie, a 48 hour notice is required.

The Bigg Chill’s clientele is an interesting mix of celebrities, UCLA students, the elderly and baby-boomers that grew up on the Westside and frequented this place with their families. It’s a very endearing sight when I go there and see elderly couples sitting at one of the tables enjoying their frozen yogurt. 

But let’s get to the event with former Disney Channel star Demi Lovato, which propelled The Bigg Chill to greater heights of fame and skyrocketed their IG followers from 6k to 35k. 

If you’re not familiar with her, Demi shot to superstardom at the age of 15 and struggled with an eating disorder and substance abuse. In the last few years, the bad press has outshined her music career. In 2018, she suffered a near-fatal opioid overdose. Then there’s the controversy around the use of her pronouns and rehab stints. In her 2021 documentary Dancing With the Devil, she coined the term “California sober”. The tipping point was The Bigg Chill incident, which caused her to receive an immense backlash. 

In 2021, Demi posted the Instagram stories below after visiting The Bigg Chill in April 2021.

The Bigg Chill politely replied to the diet vulture comment.

But given the fact that Demi took this to the next level, The Bigg Chill provided the heated exchange of DMs to TMZ, the biggest entertainment tabloid website.

The drama only continued to escalate. It was even picked up by international media. Could you imagine if your one-star Yelp review involved the entire Internet? 

Even the cookie brand Eat Me Guilt Free, spoke out about the incident. 

Amid the never-ending back and forth exchange of DMs and IG stories, The Bigg Chill received an outpouring of love and support from fellow patrons and good reviews from new customers who found The Bigg Chill thanks to this public feud. Demi was dubbed by the Internet “Karen Lovato”. Because of the extensive media coverage, they had to shut down rumors that Demi had donated $100K as an apology. 

I started frequenting The Bigg Chill at the end of last year. Although they no longer carry the infamous cookie brand, they still continue to carry other plant-based cookie brands, protein bars and low-calorie chips. 

If it’s your first time, you have to get the Classic Vanilla! The Chill Berry is also very good if you like a sweet tart flavor. If you haven’t been to Pinkberry, but you’re curious to see how the Pinkberymania started, this flavor was the catalyst! Other permanent flavors are Ghirardelli Chocolate and Peanut Butter, which I surprisingly loved. You can do multiple flavor combinations. My favorites are Classic Vanilla + Chill Berry and Classic Vanilla + Peanut Butter.

At The Bigg Chill, the flavors of the ingredients really come through and they’re not overly sweet either. They’re so fresh-tasting! I personally love the combination of the iciness, the fresh flavor and super smooth texture. This is something I don’t get to experience with ice cream, which is a lot thicker in consistency. 

I also noticed that most flavors at The Bigg Chill do not contain coloring, whereas in other frozen yogurt shops, they do. 

For toppings, they have so many to choose from! Fruits, cereals, cookies, granola, nuts and cookie dough. The latter is their most popular topping — it’s vegan and they offer five types: banana, regular cookie, Oreo, peanut butter and birthday cake — the cookie dough being their most popular. 

I personally love the birthday cake and banana cookie dough. I never ate dough as a kid, nor did I ever make cookies. So for me, the combination of the frozen yogurt and the dough flavors from the banana and the birthday cake is very unique! If I want to take it up a notch, I may occasionally add cookies or sprinkles. I’m not big on fruit when I go to a frozen yogurt place because I eat fruit almost every day, but the employee told me that they’re highly requested for toppings. 

My picture isn’t as aesthetically pleasing as the ones above!

Each topping is an additional extra dollar, which some people that have frequented the establishment for years have complained about. I think the prices are fair given the portions. Even the small size is big. 

In this video from 2010, the TV host interviewed the owners. He asked Diane, “How can I have all this yogurt and not put on 100 pounds? It doesn’t have any calories at all… How do we do that?” She replied: “It’s our secret”. 

Funnily enough, the video was uploaded in 2010, but started to garner comments after the Demi incident. 

As you read above, the flavors at The Bigg Chill are fat-free, and despite the towering swirls, after eating it, you won’t feel too full as you do when you eat ice cream, which has a high fat content. When I go to the Bill Chill, I feel full because of the toppings, not because of the actual yogurt. If you just had dinner and you want something light, I would suggest forgoing the toppings. 

The Bigg Chill is not a self-serve establishment, which I like because people aren’t so wasteful. If you want a few samples, it’s no problem because the employees will give you as many as you wish. 

Whenever I went to a Pinkberry or Menchie’s in the last few years, most of the time there was a flavor machine broken down or dripping because it’s hard to control how much yogurt comes out of the machine when you pull the lever. 

The Bigg Chill is on the pricier side, but I think it’s worth the money for the amount you’re getting. Even the small size, which is the size I always order, is big and they always make sure to pack it with the toppings. If you’re going there for the first time, please note that The Bigg Chill is cash-only! If you forget to bring it, don’t fret! There’s an atm inside the store, but they’ll charge you a $3.50 fee. 

Note: If you’re going to eat the frozen yogurt right away, tell the cashier not to give you a separate cup with the toppings. Make sure they add the toppings on the yogurt. 

One time, they put the toppings in a separate cup and it was very bothersome to pour the toppings onto the froyo without spilling anything. This is because most people take the frozen yogurt to go. 

Address: 10850 W Olympic Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90064

Hours: Monday-Sunday from 2pm to 10pm

Website and Instagram

What do you think of the frozen yogurt scene in LA? Have you been to The Bigg Chill before? I find the Demi’s incident fascinating!