Saugus frozen yogurt shop opens to big crowd

SAUGUS – There was no shortage of customers at Saugus’ newest business Tuesday afternoon, as patrons braved the pouring rain for a taste of the huge selection of flavors and toppings at Zinga Frozen Yogurt.Lorraine Jenks owns the Saugus location, which just opened Tuesday and is located in the Marshall’s shopping center off of Route 1 South.”New England is No. 1 in the United States for ice cream so we thought frozen yogurt is going to be a hit,” said Jenks. “Who doesn’t want to be healthy, right? This is truly real yogurt. This has the probiotics and the live cultures. It’s not mixed. It comes all ready to go.”Zinga offers 12 frozen yogurt flavors including New York cheesecake, peanut butter, banana and salted caramel pretzel along with 25 different topping choices.The unique part about Zinga, said Jenks, is everything is self-serve.”This is self-serve which is the exciting piece,” said Jenks. “Everybody does what they want and buys how much they want.”Customers start at the “bottomz bar,” where they can choose a cup with either a waffle, brownie or cake on the bottom. From there it’s on to the self-service yogurt dispensers, where the machines each have two flavors and a twist in the middle. Next it’s on to the fruit bar and then the toppings wall, which features Nilla Wafers, Gummi Bears, Heath Bar and crushed Butterfinger bars.”We try to put complimentary flavors together,” said Jenks. “You can mix and match or take a dollop of every flavor. It doesn’t matter.For Jenks, fruit is the key ingredient as she offers fresh chopped kiwi, pineapple, strawberry and banana among others.”Part of what’s important to me is having fresh, sliced fruit,” said Jenks. “We have all the dry stuff on the wall, but I want fresh fruit in here. We slice it fresh every day.”Jenks’ daughter Shannon works with her as the operations manager and is an attorney who graduated from Suffolk Law but left that field last year to help her mom with the business.”I was practicing for four years and I was ready for something new,” she said. “Law, frozen yogurt, how could you not make that segue? I’m happy. I’m probably more stressed in this job, but when it’s yours it makes a difference. I still enjoy my job everyday when I wake up.”Jenks also owns another Zinga in Kenmore Square in Boston, which opened in December. Jenks, a Wakefield native, said the Saugus location is perfect because it’s close to home.”My daughter Shannon and I both grew up in Wakefield and graduated from Wakefield High so we know the area,” said Jenks. “We were looking for something close by. We saw the Target across the street from the new Micheal’s. Yogurt is probably 80 percent women, so you have the nail salon, the Marshall’s, the Dollar Store, all places where you have a good population of our customer base.”Christina Geaney of Lynn watched as her three kids, Molly, 11, Shelby, 8 and Liam, 4, filled their cups Tuesday, and said she’s been waiting for Zinga to open for “at least two weeks.””We’re always in this plaza doing things they don’t want to do like getting my nails done or going to Marshall’s and running errands,” said Geaney. “So they’ve been waiting for this to open because it’s finally something for them. It’s very exciting.”Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected].