PlanJam!From your screen to the scene

Sometimes it’s hard to reconcile my healthy eating plans with my endless appetite for frozen sweets. I love ice cream, sorbet, gelato, and frozen custard. Milkshakes bring me to the yard. Luckily, I discovered a delicious new frozen snack at Starfruit. Located on Division Street in West Town, just south of Wicker Park, Starfruit is a great place to meet your friends for frozen kefir.

Starfruit opened early in 2008 with a new approach to cold confections. They serve organic kefir, a dairy product similar to frozen yogurt with cultures that aid digestion and help the body process calcium. Kefir is usually found in liquid form in grocery stores, much like a smoothie. The drink originated in the Caucasus Mountains of Russia, and as its popularity spread west, flavors were added. After enjoying the sweet/tart flavor of kefir drinks, I moved on to Starfuit, the only Chicago shop that sells the soft-serve, frozen form.

If your friends know and love frozen yogurt, they will appreciate kefir even more. Starfruit serves Lifeways frozen kefir, with vanilla and different fruit flavors like peach, strawberry banana and pomegranate. Cappuccino is my all-time favorite, combining creamy chocolate and coffee flavors. Like the frozen yogurt shops I miss from the 1980s, Starfruit has plenty of toppings to mix with the kefir. You can have a healthy parfait with California green grapes and walnuts or go totally hedonistic with Butterfinger bits and mini chocolate chip cookies. The peach kefir goes very well with mochi balls, for a peaches and cream type parfait. Smoothies here provide plenty of calcium, protein and Vitamin C, with the option of seasonal fruit like Washington cherries or exotics like Brazilian goji berries. Your health nut friend and your chocoholic friend will both appreciate Starfruit. The cappuccino smoothie with Butterfinger bits is my favorite summer treat, and I can still tell people it’s a health food.

All the organic kefir cups, parfaits and smoothies cost between $4 and $7, so you can afford to treat your friends. This is also a good spot for parents to bring their kids for a dessert or after-school snack. You can tell them it’s healthy after they try it and like it. Best of all, Starfruit’s friendly servers will let you sample the flavors and help you pick out tasty combinations of toppings and kefir. Every time I visit, the service is excellent and unhurried. The cool white restaurant interior and its outdoor metal tables and chairs are always spotless.

Frozen yogurt is back in fashion and kefir is the next delicious step. Treat your friends to something new today at Starfruit. Be sure to ask for a punch card, so your tenth frozen dessert will be free.