Australian frozen yoghurt phenomenon Yo-Chi is preparing to open its first London outpost in Notting Hill Gate next month – and, it turns out, it's all thanks to diehard UK fans.
“Honestly, we didn't go looking for this – the demand found us first,” co-owner Oliver Allis tells Broadsheet. “We'd been getting thousands of comments, messages and videos from Brits who'd either discovered us on a trip to Australia or just stumbled across us online.”
The Melbourne-born brand, which now has more than 75 locations across Australia and Singapore, will make its European debut with a two-storey, 2000-square-foot venue big enough for more than 120 people, along with a DJ booth and Yo-Chi’s famed strawberry-shaped disco ball. Broadsheet Australia dubbed it Australia's hottest club.
“People [were] messaging us asking when we're opening in London, tagging their mates, sending us videos begging us to come over,” says Allis. “At some point you can't ignore that. We thought, alright, they want it, let's go listen to them and get over there. So this launch genuinely started with the fans, not with us deciding London needed a Yo-Chi.”
The team chose Notting Hill partly because they want Yo-Chi to be somewhere to hang around. “We didn't want to just be another shop on a high street,” says Allis. “We wanted somewhere with that community feel, where locals and visitors mix, where there's a bit of independent spirit already in the air. Notting Hill's got heaps of that.”
In Australia, he says, “people go on dates there, mates meet up there, you get every age in the room at once, all having a good time together. That's what we want to bring to Notting Hill – somewhere to actually spend an evening, not just pop into.”
Soon, Londoners can discover Yo-Chi’s signature style, which is self-serve frozen yoghurt and açaí followed by a hefty DIY topping bar, with bowls priced by weight. Once the team gets to know its new audience, London-specific additions could also appear.
“The core of it isn't changing – the fresh milk yogurt, the ethically sourced açaí, fruit cut fresh every day, all the treats people love like cookie dough and pistachio spread,” says Allis. “What will evolve over time is the finer detail – flavours and toppings that feel right for London, once we've properly settled in and gotten to know the crowd.”
“But we're not here to change what makes Yo-Chi, Yo-Chi,” he adds. “The job is to bring that here properly, not water it down.”
Yo-Chi opens at 81–85 Notting Hill Gate, W11 3JS this summer.
