Customers Hop Into Dundalk's sweetFrog on Opening Day

As a small crowd gathered Thursday morning outside the still-locked doors, Dundalk sweetFrog employees ran through some last minute instructions, checked the shop's frozen yogurt machines and toppings bar and made sure the floor was spotless.

At just about 11:30 a.m., Patrick Beard opened the doors and the waiting customers were ushered in as cashiers Bailey Pratt and Cierra Frasier called out "Good morning, welcome to sweetFrog."

The first customer through the door was Old Dundalk resident Georgia Arroyo, who was on a break from her job of escorting trucks into the Port Of Baltimore.

"I'm here because my friend Casey got a job here," she said after she paid for her cup of yogurt that she customized with her choice of toppings. "I had never heard of sweetFrog until Facebook, and I've never had frozen yogurt before today—this is my first."

It's also the first time she's ever been the inaugural paying customer at a new business. When she paid for her purchase, the cashier asked her if she wanted her receipt and Arroyo declined. The cashier said the store would save it as a keepsake of the shop's first transaction.

Employee Autumn Maxa, a rising senior at Dundalk High School, was busy sweeping the floor right before the doors opened.

She said she's excited to be a Frogger and was glad to be one of the chosen few after 150 people applied for 16 openings.

"It's been great," she said of her new employers. "They had everything set up, we got training—we were put in two teams, Frogger A and Frogger B."

She said all employees are trained in all aspects of the business, so they can rotate jobs, including staffing the cash registers, monitoring and restocking the toppings bar, working on the cleanup crew and even donning costumes to portray the store's mascots, Scoop and Cookie.

The new eatery on Wise Avenue is owned and managed by business partners Anna Beard and Monica Heikkinen. The store has a self-serve model, with stations that customers traverse to build a customized cup of frozen yogurt. At the far end of the line, customers grab a cup, dispense the amount, flavor and variety of yogurt they want from a bank of dispensers and move to the toppings bar before ending at the weigh station at the cash register.

Toppings run the gamut from fresh fruit and crumbled candy bars to granola and syrups.

The final product costs 45 cents an ounce.

By 6 p.m., Patrick Beard, husband of co-owner Anna, said everyone was pleased with how opening day went.

"We've had a great turnout so far, and people really like the product," he said in a phone interview. "We've had a lot of positive feedback."

Beard believes Dundalk has "been yearning for a new, exciting, family-friendly concept" and said sweetFrog can fill that void.

The shop offers a variety of yogurt flavors and many healthy choices, including no-fat, low-fat, dairy-free and gluten-free recipes. Flavors will change from day to day, and special seasonal flavors will be added to the list around holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, according to Beard.

"You can choose a healthy treat or really load it up" to create a more decadent treat, he said. "We have something for everyone."

Shop Details:
What: sweetFrog frozen yogurt shop
Where: 7730 Wise Ave., Suite A
Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Sunday through Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday