Kids love fro-yo. They also love devouring candy and drawing on walls. But without any children at my disposal, I decided the best way to evaluate iYO Cafe, a self-serve yogurt and waffle shop, would be to rally some girlfriends and smoke a fat joint before heading over.We arrived freshly baked at 10 pm on a weeknight and found the Davis Square storefront bustling. A mild bout of social anxiety faded as we realized the crowd was full of twentysomethings like ourselves. I made a beeline for the waffle station, poured a cup of batter, and dumped it into a flippable machine while avoiding eye contact with a very helpful attendant.
She told me one-fourth of a waffle fits perfectly inside one of their cups, so I let my enlightened appetite attempt the elusive breakfast-dessert hybrid. A built-in timer counted down while my waffle cooked and I contemplated 12 flavors of fro-yo.
I wound up burying my waffle in blueberry-tart and triple-chocolate yogurts, liquid marshmallow sauce, whipped cream, crushed Oreos, and tapioca pearls. (There are a couple of yards of counter space allotted for dry toppings alone.)
Then came the weigh-and-pay line, which wracked my nerves until I noticed those ahead of me had loaded their cups even fuller than the one I'd stuffed to the rim. Not one of them rang up over $6, and I clocked in at an astonishing $4.83. At 49 cents per ounce, it's safe to indulge.After taste-testing our creations, we took shots of Barrington Coffee espresso and headed for the back room equipped with a giant chalkboard. We added flamingos and flower doodles to a preexisting mural of rainbows, faces, and silly tags like "I [heart] Irish dance." Only one drawing appeared to be made by a child — I'm pretty sure the rest was high art.
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FIND IT: 234 Elm St, Somerville | 617.764.5295 or | iyocafe.com | Mon–Fri, 7 am to 11 pm; Sat, 8 am to 11:30 pm; Sun, 8 am to 10 pm
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