Downtown line culture has officially invaded the Upper East Side — where suddenly everyone is losing their minds over frozen yogurt.
On Lexington Avenue, the partition ropes are out, the branded cones are in place, and hungry daytrippers are lining the block while bewildered, curious residents brush past a snaking line forming near their multimillion-dollar prewar buildings, wondering what, exactly, is happening on the corner of 72nd Street.
Viral Australian froyo shop Mimi’s opened its first uptown location last Thursday, and promptly unleashed hordes of twenty-somethings in sweatpants, parents and young kids willing to wait nearly an hour for a swirl.
By 8:41 p.m. Monday, the line outside the new shop at Lexington Avenue and East 72nd Street stretched to the corner of East 71st, as workers tried to corral the crowd with ropes.
For a neighborhood better known for white-gloved doormen, co-ops and luxury fashion, crowds are now spilling past apartment entrances, blocking neighboring businesses and filling nearby trash cans full to the brim with discarded Mimi’s cups.
Founded by 26-year-old Sydney native Amber Linz, Mimi’s is already notorious for block-long lines in Soho — and the hype has followed uptown.
Two employees at the neighboring Joe & The Juice told The Post the crowd has repeatedly backed up in front of their door since Mimi’s arrived.
Nearby doormen have found themselves fielding questions from residents and local passersby who have no idea why dozens of people are suddenly standing outside their buildings at night.
“People were inquiring, ‘What’s going on?’” a doorman at 150 E. 72nd St. told The Post.
The biggest rushes have hit after school and after dinner — and groups of students even asked the store to open earlier so they could squeeze in froyo during their lunch breaks, to which Linz adjusted her hours, thrilled that “proper children” were coming in for a treat.
“We’ve never had children; it’s a real locals market here,” Linz told The Post, noting the differences between the downtown clientele and the new location. “People come here; they live here.”
“It’s been consistently busy since we opened,” the Aussie added. “We’re honored that Mimi’s is already becoming a place in the neighborhood where people want to hang.”
Between wiping off counters of chocolate and pistachio syrups dripping from the fountain spouts, the entrepreneur told The Post she opened Mimi’s as a passion project after moving to New York two years earlier and feeling like something was still missing.
She had grown up around the food and beverage industry in Australia and previously sold baked goods before launching Mimi’s, which was originally only supposed to be a six-month pop-up.
“I only dreamed it would pop off,” Linz said.
Instead, she went from relative anonymity in New York to overseeing a viral mini-empire.
Her philosophy is relatively simple: “I prefer simple flavors done exceptionally, and you go crazy with the toppings,” she said.
But if it seems wild that frozen yogurt is generating this kind of commotion in 2026, Mimi’s is hardly alone.
The frenzy is widespread across Manhattan, but the Upper East Side appears to be entering a full-blown frozen-dessert arms race.
Myka, the buzzy Greek frozen yogurt chain already known for lines elsewhere in the city, is preparing to open near Second Avenue and East 80th Street.
And on less than two blocks away is essentially fro-yo-row.
Between East 81st and 82nd Streets on Second Avenue, there is already a Pinkberry, which is practically a historical landmark at this point, dating back to the early aughts and still holding strong, along with 16 Handles and Anita Gelato — all within steps of one another.
When The Post visited 16 Handles on a Wednesday night last week, its toppings bar looked as if it had been ransacked, as if people had never had dessert before.
At Butterfield Market, shoppers routinely form formidable lines of their own, while normally staid stretches of Lexington Avenue increasingly feature crowd-control ropes and barricades outside neighborhood institutions.
At this rate, the Upper East Side may have to start zoning specifically for yogurt.
Mimi’s says that’s exactly why it came uptown.
“We came to the Upper East Side because our guests were begging us to come closer to home,” Sam Rosenzweig, Mimi’s marketing director, told The Post, adding that customers had been trekking downtown for Mimi’s several times a week.
“To see the neighborhood show up for us like this has been incredibly special,” he said. “We’re just really grateful for the incredibly warm welcome and excited to be part of the community.”
And despite the ropes, crowds and occasional blocked doorway, some locals have found one major upside.
The Mimi’s storefront had previously been expected to become a cannabis shop. So while 72nd Street may now have hundreds of young people mobbing for frozen yogurt, apparently, it could have been weed.
Call it a win.
Read the full article here
