The Half Moon Bay local worked at her parents’ Mom and Pop’s Yogurt Shop as a kid, and on July 1 she and husband Nano Kavaliku opened a Hawaiian-influenced yogurt business called Nano’s Yogurt Shack. It’s at 523 Main St., in the same location as her family’s old shop.
With Pinkberry, Red Mango and Tuttimelon popping up on main drags all over the country, competition drives iteration after iteration of the sweet probiotic. Self-serve yogurt shops are trendy, but Seeley-Kavaliku wants Nano’s to be a back-to-basics, family-oriented enterprise.
 Rebecca Seeley-Kavaliku serves customers at the newly opened Nano'€™s Yogurt Shack. Below, the store opened in the same Main Street location where her parents once ran Mom and Pop'€™s Yogurt Shop. |
Before walking over to take orders, she explained that customer service makes it a better price point for the community because parents don’t have to worry about their kids serving themselves over-sized and over-priced portions.
Seeley-Kavaliku remembers a middle-school birthday sleepover in this very shop. She recalls about eight teenyboppers spending the night on the floor of her parents’ shop. Nobody was sick from too much yogurt, but they had free rein over the machines.
Seeley-Kavaliku and her husband had been talking about opening a frozen yogurt business for about three years but decided to move forward with their plans because of the yogurt craze. They also own Gourmet Appliance further down Main Street.
Seeley-Kavaliku is trying to bring the jukebox, soda-fountain era to bear in the new shop with old-fashioned hot dogs and the same foccacia sandwiches her parents used to serve. But she’s doing it on her own terms. Nano’s gives a distinctly Hawaiian surf shack impression with hibiscus flower accents, corrugated metal paneling and the palm tree and beach mural.
The shop takes its name from the family’s 3-year-old son. “He doesn’t know he has a yogurt shop yet,” Seeley-Kavaliku beamed. The younger Nano’s favorite flavor combination is vanilla with rainbow sprinkles.
The yogurt shack’s grand opening is Thursday. Seeley-Kavaliku said they will roast a pig in the building’s backyard, the soda fountain will be up and running, and all nine valves in the yogurt machine will be pumping.
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