Try to top this

FOR a guy who has yet to officially open his business in the U.S., the president of fledgling frozen yogurt company Red Mango is having a very good day. "We just installed a machine in Leonardo DiCaprio's office," Dan Kim says from the South Korea-based firm's office near LAX. "Now he wants a machine delivered to his temporary home in New York. Apparently, he heard about the rats at Pinkberry's New York store."

Kim laughs at his own cheap shot. But the 31-year-old former investment banker is going to need more than DiCaprio's blessing -- or his competitor's snafu (captured by a WABC-TV camera and since remedied) -- to topple SoCal's rapidly expanding Pinkberry chain and make a dent in the burgeoning market for tart-flavored frozen yogurt.

Tart yogurt, the progenitor of the sweeter, ice cream-like varieties dispensed by myriad chains throughout the Southland, is on the rise, with local food bloggers and national publications such as Travel & Leisure weighing in on the Pinkberry phenomenon. The chain's particular brand of tart plain or green tea-flavored yogurt, sprinkled with healthful toppings such as fruits and almonds, has been dubbed "crackberry" by heavy users.

More than merely offering discerning palates a new flavor for their summertime desserts, these new stores are shaping themselves as social gathering places. Their sleek, comfortable designs have as much in common with modern coffeehouses than ice cream parlors, inviting patrons to linger.

And there will be plenty from which to choose. With Pinkberry at 20 California locations and growing, Red Mango makes its debut in Westwood on Tuesday, and another straight-from-Korea competitor, Yogurberry, opens a Koreatown shop July 16, the first of 23 planned for the state this year.

What's cool this summer?

It's "fro-yo" -- and watching the fro-yo wars.

The new coffee shops?

Although Southern California has already been through one frozen yogurt boom-and-bust cycle in the 1980s and '90s, things look different this time around. Fro-yo shops such as Pinkberry and Valley Village's new Menchie's are attracting crowds that previously hung out at Starbucks or the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. Actual "scenes" are developing at some locations -- partially because of their interior design, as well as customers' increasing appreciation for the health benefits of eating yogurt over, say, drinking a Frappuccino.