Put your Spoons in the air - and welcome my new Wickedly favorite froyo shop!

 Wow. Where do I begin?!  I had read about the new frozen yogurt place that opened in Park Slope, Wicked Spoon, about a month ago, and added it to the list of places to try.  Frozen yogurt is my favorite dessert ever, and I'm always excited to try a new place, especially in my favorite neighborhood.  I tried not to read too much about it, because I wanted to form my own opinion when I visited.  I mentioned this new place to a few friends, including the fact that chocolate covered crickets were for sale, and we decided to head out to Brooklyn today to investigate.

Wicked Spoon's concept is that they have wickedly delicious flavors and combinations, unique from anything you'll find at your run of the mill Red Mango or Pinkberry chain.  The owner, Alex Rozhitsky, wanted to bring creative culinary combinations to the yogurt-loving world, and he has more than succeeded.  He has created a place that actually makes me wish I had never moved from Park Slope! Although probably better for my pocket, because if I lived closer I would be coming here every day.  Although I'll probably still try to come here every day, it's only 2 stops from Atlantic Avenue.

So let's get into the details.  There are 4 flavors on the froyo tap.  Tart, chocolate, and pomegranate are the staples.  The 4th is the flavor of the month, which luckily for me was cookies and cream.  The yogurt itself comes from Oregon, and is all natural, nonfat, gluten free and kosher.  So it's good for everyone.  Unlike most froyo joints, the consistency of the yogurt is smooth through and through.  It didn't melt fast in the cup, or lose it's sturdiness as we ate.  The tart was just the right balance of tart and tangy, and the chocolate was rich but not overly sweet.  I even liked the perfectly fruity pomegranate, even though I'm solely a chocolate girl.

The difficult part was choosing the toppings.  There were over 40 to choose from, which meant over 10 minutes at the counter deciding what the best flavor combinations would be.  Alex was super nice and let us taste a few of the toppings, which most places don't ever offer.  Alex partners with local NY food entrepreneurs to offer toppings such as Jacques Torres' chocolate covered cheerios and ginger, bobbysue's nuts! (plain or chocolate covered), and WannaHavaCookie, who provides the cookies for the froyo-filled whoopie pies.  Traditional toppings were available as well (an assortment of fruits, cereals, sprinkles, chocolate chips, etc) but an additional array of unique toppings such as Tate's chocolate chip cookies, chocolate covered rice krispies, wasabi peas, nonpareils, yogurt craisins, chocolate malt balls, and chocolate graham crackers.  There were also sauces to consider, from your chocolate and caramel to cabernet berry, lemoncello sauce and balsamic.  It was nearly impossible to decide - note Melissa's pensive face analyzing the toppings:

I decided on a mixture of tart and cookies and cream, which were served one on top of another since they're in different machines.  The bowls come with up to 3 toppings, and I chose Tate's chocolate chip cookies, chocolate covered rice krispies and Jacques Torres chocolate covered cheerios.  Melissa's and my concoctions were fairly similar, and Jake went with one of the pre-set 'Wicked Combinations', Yellow Snow, which consisted of original tart yogurt, pineapple, mango, and lemoncello sauce.  They were presented beautifully, and we all thoroughly enjoyed the yogurt and toppings alike.  We also purchased 2 chocolate covered crickets for - I suppose dessert?  As we sat at the table and discussed how much we loved Wicked Spoon, we discovered that Alex had cards for people to fill in their own flavor combinations.  We spent the next hour on our rainy Sunday afternoon developing amazing combinations which I won't reveal too much of, but included the "Double Feature", "The Anti-Oxidizer", and the "Naughty & Nice."

While we brainstormed, Alex talked to us and told us about his venture, showed us the prototypes for the biodegradable spoons, which they had out of due to the popularity since opening.  He told us he was in the works for opening up 2 additional locations, and explained the affiliation with some of the toppings providers like bobbisue's nuts! (and gave us a jar to try, and they were some damn good nuts!) He also gave us one of his favorite combinations to try, the Wicked Sonoma, which was pomegranate yogurt with blueberries, blackberries and cabernet sauce.  As we tried to figure out some great international toppings that could be included in the "Around the World" sundae (still working on it, if you have suggestions please let me know!), Alex also let us try the whoopie pies, which I ALSO loved - EVERYTHING was great here!  The whoopie pie cakes were made with WannaHavaCookie cookies, and the red velvet cookie was paired with pomegranate froyo and the chocolate went with the cookies and cream.  I'm not even a fan of whoopie pies, AND was stuffed, but still managed to have some!!

In the end, when I thought I couldn't ingest anything else, we had to try our chocolate covered crickets.  Now, I've never eaten a bug before (knowingly at least) - but felt like walking in NY in flip flops is probably more disgusting than eating a bug covered in chocolate. Plus, Jake and I had talked about it all week (thinking we were going to be eating grasshoppers actually but - we were close), and we were there, so it had to be done.  We unwrapped our crickets, which had nutritional facts on the package - only 30 calories per bug and 2g of fat. No protein.  After a little toast made by Jake, we fed each other our crickets.  It didn't taste much different than a chocolate covered rice krispie.  I did hear the crunch as I bit, which was the only gross part until Jake later noticed that one of the cricket legs hadn't quite made it all the way down :)  We proudly put on our 'I Ate A Bug Club' pins, shook hands with our new friend Alex, and went back home to share the news with the world.  Alex is working on a lot of new fun combinations, and I know I'll be back here frequently to try them all!

 Wicked Spoon is located at 321 5th Avenue, 1 block from the R stop on 4th Ave and 9th street, or 2 blocks from the F/G train at 7th Avenue.  Go. Trust me.  And when you're going, tell me so I can come along!


http://wickedspoonyogurt.com/index.html