Mimi's is bringing its downtown frozen yogurt frenzy to the Upper East Side. The brand will open its first location above 14th Street at 997 Lexington Avenue at East 72nd Street on September 10 at noon, marking the company's third Manhattan shop and its first true push uptown.
The opening date was confirmed by the brand via Instagram, according to East Side Feed, which first reported signage going up at the Lexington Avenue corner back in July. The self-serve shop will keep the same daily hours as Mimi's other locations, noon to 10 p.m., and customers will pay the brand's now-familiar $1.20 per ounce, with a typical cup running between $11 and $18.
That price tag is roughly double what legacy chains like 16 Handles charge, which run between $0.60 and $0.90 per ounce, according to The Polygon. Mimi's justifies the premium with sourcing that includes milk from Upstate New York dairies, raspberries from Oregon, Medjool dates from California, and pistachio sauce from Italy, per a report from Patch. Seasonal toppings are supplied through Natoora, the distributor known for stocking Michelin-starred restaurants, while the yogurt base itself blends Greek yogurt, milk, and kefir with just a small amount of cane sugar. Fruit flavors rely on real purées rather than syrups, and the menu also includes a ceremonial-grade matcha made with Blank Street coffee and an Alphonso mango flavor, with toppings that rotate by season.
From a SoHo Pop-Up to a Citywide Name
Mimi's origin story starts with founder Amber Linz, who arrived in New York in July 2024 and began formulating recipes that October. She signed her first lease in Union Square in April 2025 before opening a SoHo location that August. That debut, at 231 Lafayette Street, was originally meant as a temporary pop-up, but it drew high-profile visitors including Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep during its opening weekend, according to East Side Feed. Demand was strong enough that the founders converted the space into a permanent storefront.
Mimi's opened a second shop on University Place in Greenwich Village on March 2, 2026. Both the SoHo and Greenwich Village locations have developed warm-afternoon and evening waits that regularly stretch down the sidewalk, drawing crowds that skew young. The brand was co-founded alongside Saul Katz with the specific goal of recreating Australia's relaxed, all-day café culture in New York, per reporting from The Polygon, targeting young customers who want a late-day social spot that does not serve alcohol.
Howard Schultz Is Watching Closely
The brand has also picked up a notable advisor: former Starbucks chief executive Howard Schultz, who began advising Mimi's after watching winter crowds queue outside its SoHo shop, according to the South China Morning Post. Schultz has reportedly compared Mimi's strategy of elevating a basic commodity into a premium product to Starbucks' own early efforts to reinvent coffee. That comparison lines up with broader national numbers: U.S. frozen yogurt consumption grew 26 percent to roughly 87 million servings in the 12 months ending in March, fueled largely by Gen Z's appetite for healthier treats and alcohol-free social spaces, per data from consumer research firm Circana cited in the same report.
A Rival Just Half a Mile Away
Mimi's uptown arrival puts it in direct competition with Mythos, a Greek yogurt shop located at 1269 First Avenue between 68th and 69th Streets, about half a mile from the new Lexington Avenue site. Mythos was founded in Aruba in 2024 by siblings Martin Felipe Alvear and Mariana Alvear and had operated only in the Caribbean before opening its first U.S. location on the Upper East Side in June, according to The National Herald.
The shop took over a storefront previously occupied by Mr. Bee Convenience and markets its Greek frozen yogurt as containing more than 90 billion live probiotic cultures per serving, per Patch. Mythos leans into Mediterranean flavor with toppings like baklava, honey, and olive oil, giving Upper East Siders two very different premium froyo options within walking distance of each other come September.
Hiring and Expansion Beyond the Storefront
Ahead of the Lexington Avenue debut, Mimi's has posted job openings for front-of-house crew members at the new location, offering $17.00 an hour plus tips with a guaranteed minimum of $23.00 an hour, according to a listing on 7shifts Jobs. The postings call for staff available on evenings and weekends, matching the shop's noon-to-10-p.m. schedule.
The brand has also been expanding beyond fixed storefronts. In July, Mimi's launched a food truck concept called “Mimi's on wheels,” aimed at summer crowds in the Hamptons, the company announced on its Facebook page. Between the mobile unit, the SoHo original, the Greenwich Village shop, and now the Upper East Side, Mimi's is betting that New Yorkers' appetite for pricey, gut-friendly frozen yogurt still has room to grow.
