About Us
About Us
Our Cafe
In its 10 daily froyo selections, YoFresh offers 86 yogurt and sorbet flavors that rotate seasonally. They are kosher and full of immune-boosting probiotics and include non-fat, gluten-free, dairy-free, and no sugar added options – healthier alternatives to traditional calorie-laden desserts. In addition to yogurt, we serve smoothies; coffee and espresso beverages; made-to-order sandwiches and salads; gourmet-level soups and chili; mac n’ cheese; pizza; hot dogs; and a variety of pastries. We can also cater your event at your location, from hors d’ouevres and desserts to full, multi-course meals.
In its 10 daily froyo selections, YoFresh offers 86 yogurt flavors that rotate seasonally. Our yogurts are kosher and full of immune-boosting probiotics; they include non-fat, gluten-free, dairy-free, and no sugar added options – healthier alternatives to traditional calorie-laden desserts. In addition to yogurt, we also serve coffee, smoothies, pastries, soups, chili, made-to-order sandwiches, mac n’ cheese, pizza, and hot dogs.
Meet Larry and Jean:
Dr. Larry Murphy is professor emeritus of History at the Garrett-Evangelical Seminary and Dr. Jean Murphy is professor emerita of Education at Chicago State University; she also had served as an adjunct professor at National Louis University and at the Erikson Institute, both in Chicago. Though they both dedicated their professional careers to higher education, Larry had, from early in life, an entrepreneurial spark inside, and Jean had gifts for management. After stepping down from teaching, the Murphys realized they were not yet ready to retire fully. Instead, they chose to open YoFresh Cafe, where they hoped to contribute to the Evanston community by providing an inviting communal space full of delicious, healthy food options.
COVID Response
YoFresh Café follows all the CDC guidelines for customer and staff safety, including the requirement of masks and gloves for all staff; masks and the wearing of our disposable gloves for all customers entering the café; limiting the number of persons in the cafe at one time; the posting of social distancing markers and the revision of traffic flow patterns in the café so that customers do not pass by one another; the regular cleaning and sanitizing of all customer contact surfaces, both in the café and in our al alfresco dining area; the curtailment of indoor dining and the use of restrooms; the provision for curbside pick of food ordered online or by phone.
YoFresh joined in the expressions of gratitude extended to our heroic pandemic healthcare workers by delivering weekly complimentary cups of frozen yogurt to frontline COVID staff at the Amita St. Francis and the Evanston Northshore Hospitals late Spring through the Summer, 2020.
About Our Ties to the Community
As a small business in the Evanston community, we have a sense of responsibility to be an institution that cares for and promotes the well-being of the community, beyond any economic considerations.
Our Initiatives for Community Gatherings
We have been proud to provide a space for the YWCA to hold it’s monthly “Let’s Talk About Race” roundtable discussions, for PTA committee meetings, for elective candidate forums, for the Evanston “First Night” planning group, and other such organizational meetings. We have hosted youth musical recitals; multi-media arts and craft shows; giftware shows; and art exhibits of significant local artists.
Community Service
Bi-weekly, YoFresh Café donates cups of yogurt to the Lydia Homes Residential Center, a program of School District 65 for socially/emotionally challenged students. YoFresh Cafe also provides once each week a subsidized dinner meal to the tenants of the Connections for the Homeless facility.
YoFresh has co-sponsored multiple fundraising events for local public schools and charitable organizations. We continue to do so and we welcome such opportunities to lend our support.
YoFresh supports the Books and Breakfast program here in Evanston, geared toward low-income school children in the District 202 schools. We invite the young readers to come to YoFresh and present to our staff either an oral discussion or a written review of a book they have read, in exchange for which they will receive a free frozen yogurt treat.
YoFresh has provided subsidized refreshments in support of the programs of Youth Opportunities Unlimited (YOU), The Evanston Historical Society, Reba Place Fellowship, the City of Evanston/Northwestern University Community Picnic, the Rotary Club, the Park School, the Puerta Abierto Preschool, Fusion Academy, Chiaravalle Montessori School, among other community organizations.
YoFresh contributes space in our café, at no charge, for a mini-bookstore for Young, Black, and Lit Books. This local not for profit sells the books to pay for other books they obtain at deep discounts from publishers, which they then give away to students in the public schools as a support for literacy and intellectual/cultural enrichment. YoFresh takes no profit or commission on these sales.
For the last several election cycles, YoFresh has provided subsidized breakfast and lunch refreshments and meals for the men and women who put in the grueling but essential service as election precinct workers.
YoFresh holds active membership in the Evanston Chamber of Commerce.