ShopEatSleep

Pinkberry Swirly Gram. Courtesy of Pinkberry.

Looking for a cute Valentine’s Day gift? You may want to consider Pinkberry’s Swirly Grams, which can either be actual froyo or a gift card packaged up with heart-shaped balloons and hand delivered. The frozen yogurt comes in a single serving size ($10) or a five-serving size ($20), and the gift card can be any amount you’d like plus a small packaging fee. Choose from three flavor combinations: original with toasted almonds, strawberries and dark chocolate crisps, chocolate with brownie bites, raspberries and shaved milk chocolate, and the new blood orange with blood orange pieces and a waffle cookie. Order online through Feb. 9 and in store through Feb. 10 for delivery between Feb. 11 and Valentine’s Day.

Enter to win your own Swirly Gram complete with a $10 Pinkberry gift card by leaving a comment on this post stating why you want Pinkberry for Valentine’s Day. Contest ends Sunday, Feb. 6 at 11:59 p.m. PST. I’ll pick one winner at random to be announced the following day. Good luck!

**This contest is closed.**

Congratulations to Bryant Verador, winner of this contest!

UPDATE: Due to popular demand, online ordering for Swirly Grams has been extended to Feb. 11 at 12:00 p.m. PST, and you can purchase them in stores through Feb. 14 to deliver on your own.

From Bacon Today.

L.A.’s favorite hot dog: Farmer John has a fundraising campaign aimed at making the bacon-wrapped hot dog Los Angeles’ official wiener, and more importantly to donate food to local food banks. Between now and election day on Nov. 2, you can vote at www.votelahotdog.org, and for every signature collected in support of the bacon-wrapped hot dog, Farmer John will make a donation of 1 pound — up to 50,000 pounds — to local food banks. You know you’ve had your fair share of danger dogs after a late-night of debauchery, so a simple click to submit your vote and help food banks shouldn’t be too hard, right? Oh, and here’s Farmer John’s recipe for making your own bacon dog.

Macy’s Culinary Council: Macy’s in Pasadena is hosting James Beard Award-winning chef, restaurateur and author Takashi Yagihashi of Takashi restaurant in Chicago. He’ll be at Macy’s on Lake Avenue Oct. 7 to talk about his favorite recipes and gourmet techniques, as well as sign copies of his cookbook, which will be available for purchase the day of the event. You don’t need a reservation, but seating will be limited to the first 200 people. And a suggested $5 donation to benefit the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank will be collected at the door.

Macy’s
Furniture Department, Level 3
401 S. Lake Ave.
Pasadena, CA 91101
Oct. 7, 6:30 p.m.

Pinkberry’s 100-store celebration: To celebrate the milestone of opening its 100th store, Pinkberry is holding a contest called “100 Stores, 100 Ways,” inviting Pinkberry fans to share favorite ways and places to enjoy the tangy froyo. To enter, you’ll have to explain in 100 words or less your favorite Pinkberry combinations, creative ways to eat Pinkberry and how Pinkberry has played a part in your life. Those 100 words could be in the form of a story, poem or song, and optional Flickr photos and YouTube videos can accompany the submission, too. The grand prize winner will receive a $1,000 Pinkberry VIPink Card, and 10 first-place winners will each get $50 Pinkberry gift cards.

Blogger Prom: This year’s Blogger Prom, dubbed Hollywood Confidential, is taking place this Wednesday, Sept. 22, at Yamashiro restaurant. Since I’m on the planning committee, I haven’t been posting on ShopEatSleep as often as I usually do — an event as big as Blogger Prom takes a lot of work! There’s going to be all kinds of fun stuff, including good eats from Chef Brock at Yamashiro, tastings from Barrie Lynn The Cheese Impresario, Coolhaus, Crumbs Bake Shop and other yummy and generous sponsors. There will be giveaways and gift bags galore, so if you’ve received an invitation and haven’t responded yet (this is an invite-only event!), do it now! You won’t want to miss this.

Pinkberry: The ever-present purveyor of tart frozen yogurt is now offering a take-home container that holds the equivalent of five small servings (prices range from $9.95 to $10.95, depending on the store). You can also purchase toppings to go for $1.95 per container, too. I’m not too sure how the froyo would hold up if placed in a home freezer, but I guess it could work if you were having a party and were planning on eating it soon. The fruit bowl is also a new offering; from the description, it sounds like a reverse cup of froyo, with mostly fruit topped with what Pinkberry is calling Swirly Whip, which is made from the Original tart flavor.

Eat, Breathe, Shop at FIG, Fred Segal Couture and Exhale: Spend more than $500 at Fred Segal Couture and get a complimentary week at Exhale Spa in the Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows as well as a complimentary FIG Fit breakfast at the hotel’s FIG Restaurant. The FIG Fit menu features health-conscious items such as scarlet quinoa with diced apples, and house-made power bars blended from dates, acai, gogi, pomegranate and hemp seeds. Exhale combines fitness and movement with spa and healing therapies, and if you sign up for one of Exhale’s memberships, you’ll get a $100 credit to Fred Segal Couture. It’s a pretty nice cycle.

Courtesy of Pinkberry.

From June 25 through August, Pinkberry will be offering a new flavor, as it tends to do in the summertime. This year it’s watermelon. While I normally wouldn’t bother reporting on a new frozen yogurt flavor, I was intrigued by the news that Pinkberry is recommending this new watermelon flavor topped with watermelon puree, diced watermelon and diced cucumber, which will be offered at stores upon its release. Adding a little savory vegetable action into the mix might not be such a bad idea, though I haven’t tasted it yet so I can’t say for sure. When I do, I’ll let you know what I think.

Oh, and to up the ante in the world of froyo, Pinkberry is introducing a daily happy hour from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. to push its new flavor. Any size watermelon froyo, including swirls and side-by-sides, will be half-price during this time.

UPDATE: I just tried the new flavor, thanks to a special delivery to my office from Pinkberry, and I like it a lot. The watermelon frozen yogurt is nice, especially with the watermelon and cucumber pieces, which seem to cut the sweetness of the froyo a bit (a good thing for me). I’m not sure I’m a fan of the watermelon puree, though, but only because it froze into an icy mass after sitting on the cold yogurt.

Note: The frozen yogurt with toppings that was delivered to me was complimentary.

Today Red Mango announced a new flavor, Tangomonium, “a light and refreshing flavor with notes of fruit and citrus,” according to the company’s press release. If you, like me, are wondering what it tastes like (tangerine? mango?), head over to a Red Mango store on May 2, when you can get a free small cup with one topping from 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. What will Pinkberry come up with to counter, I wonder?

• The L.A. Planning Commission approved Rick Caruso’s mixed-use project at 8500 Burton Way. The 88-unit apartment building planned for near the intersection of La Cienega and San Vicente boulevards will include a Trader Joe’s on the ground floor. More at CurbedLA.

• The Wall Street Journal has a story on Pinkberry’s latest capital infusion: $5.8 million of a $15 million round. Here’s a story I wrote back in February about the froyo biz in L.A.

• Bravo is coming out with a new reality show that will follow the staff at Fred Segal Santa Monica, per Reuters. The network is also premiering “NYC Prep,” which looks like it’ll be a real-life “Gossip Girl” so hopefully we’ll see lots of pretty clothes (and bad behavior!).