When Ava Skipworth opened Monster Yogurt over a decade ago, Casa Linda Plaza was filled with empty storefronts.
Photography by Lauren Allen
“It was kind of a bad area, and a lot of the tenants had moved out,” she says.
That’s not the case anymore. Skipworth described the shopping center as “thriving” and attributed the change to the economy, new owners of the shopping center and businesses moving in.
Seeing this evolution was one of her goals for Monster Yogurt – to bring back the Casa Linda community.
Prior to opening the frozen yogurt shop, Skipworth had a career in automotive sales and hadn’t run an eatery before.
“My attorney actually told me not to do it,” she says, laughing. “He said, ‘Go buy a car dealership.’ But it didn’t accomplish the goals that I wanted. I wanted something here, basically, local where I could drive to work in five minutes and that kind of thing, spend more time raising my son.”
Skipworth has lived in the Casa Linda area for about 25 years. She grew up in Pottsboro near the Texas-Oklahoma border and left for Florida when she was 18 or 19 years old.
“You can’t be a hero in your hometown,” she says. “That’s what I always believed.”
Skipworth picked the Sunshine State to find opportunities, enjoy the beaches and join her friends there. Upon arriving, she took up some odd jobs but fell upon hard times and was homeless when she got hired at a car dealership. That job was a game-changer for her and led to her getting an education and buying a house in Florida.
She mainly worked at a Saturn dealership in Florida and in Texas when she returned as a 30-year-old. But in 2010, Saturn closed, so Mazda took its place at the Mesquite dealership, where Skipworth served as operating partner. This change led to her leaving the car-selling business.
“It was just a different atmosphere,” she says. “(Saturn was) more family-friendly. You treated people a little bit differently.”
Upon exiting her career, Skipworth decided to do something different and for the community. At first, she looked into opening a franchise store for an established brand but decided to create her own concept. Speaking transparently, Skipworth says she wanted to start a frozen yogurt shop because it was popular, but she didn’t think it was being marketed to the right customers.
“They always wanted to cater to the Starbucks crowd, the Millennials at the time, but the Millennials really wanted caffeine and really wanted more of a Starbucks, but the people that went to the frozen yogurt stores were people with small children,” she says. “It’s like, ‘Why don’t they have one that caters to young families and people with small children?’ My son was 4, and every time we left the house, it was $100 or $200, so what I say is, ‘It’s a place to go with kids in tow without spending a lot of dough.’”
With her mission in mind, the Casa Linda fro-yo shop opened in 2012. Business was going so well that Skipworth started a second location in Richardson a year later.
“The concept was working,” she says. “People really embraced it, and so I just went for it.”
The monster motif started with the slogan “scary tastes good.” Skipworth brainstormed concepts with her friends and family, and she remembered one of them calling her in the middle of the night to go with the Monster Yogurt idea.
Then, there’s the logo — created by Dallas artist CJ Miller — of a grumpy green monster with fangs and hair that resembles a swirl of frozen yogurt, a creature that’s part The Grinch mixed with Mike Wazowski from Monsters Inc.
Purple and green in the monster logo is reflected throughout the Casa Linda store — from the avocado-colored walls, the furniture inside and outside, and even the neon open sign. The shop is undoubtedly meant to appeal to children. Before even getting to the fro-yo, there are toys for sale on the right side and a playpen on the left. Books are also available to borrow for families who want to read together, as opposed to looking at TVs, which are mostly absent in the store.
“I always get a lot of dads that say, ‘You know what would be a great business idea? You need to have the football games in here,’” Skipworth says. “But it would take away from it because a lot of people do come in and just read books to their kids.”
Flavors of frozen yogurt are even being created by children. For the first three months of the year, the young’uns pitched thousands of ideas, and now, they’re being made. For example, the first on tap in Casa Linda was Sophia’s Banana Pudding Custard, and new flavors are expected to roll out every couple of weeks.
In store, frozen yogurt prices are calculated by weight — 79 cents per ounce for bowls and cups. House-made waffle cones are also an option. As of writing this, mandatory flavors chocolate, vanilla and tart are available, plus acai palm berry, salted caramel corn, cookies and cream, Texas peach, bubble gum and Irish mint.
With any frozen yogurt shop, it’s not just about the flavors but also the sauces and toppings, which include nuts, fruit, candy and all things chocolate. A highlight is the fresh whipped cream made in-house.
When Skipworth said she wanted to bring back the community in Casa Linda, she meant it. Each year, Monster Yogurt hosts a fundraiser for Dallas Art Therapy as well as a children’s book drive benefitting underserved schools. Local children are given free frozen yogurt that they give to their moms for Mother’s Day.
“Anytime we see an opportunity that’s a good fit — children’s charities, stuff like that — we’ll do it,” she says.
Skipworth also cares for her team behind the counter. She wants to transition into an employee-owned business so that whenever she sells Monster Yogurt and retires, her longtime staffers can benefit. There is also an employee savings plan for high school seniors and college students; they are encouraged to save a dollar for each working hour, and Monster Yogurt will match it.
“The parents can’t always afford everything for them to go to school or for them to buy a car,” Skipworth says. “You really need those things to start. I started very poor and worked my way up, and without adults giving me a hand, I never would have made it.”
Monster Yogurt, 9540 Garland Road, Suite 394, 214.321.6363, scarytastesgood.com
