Latest Addition to the \'Yogurt Capital\': A Bar in SoHo

By THOMAS KAPLAN

Let it be known: New York State is now the Greek yogurt capital of the world - at least as far as the Cuomo administration is concerned.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo dispatched his lieutenant governor, Robert J. Duffy, to pay tribute on Wednesday to the state's booming yogurt industry. The occasion was a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Chobani's first retail store, on Prince Street in SoHo, and Mr. Duffy was the ideal emissary: “I am a yogurt person - every morning and every night,” he explained.

As waitresses circulated with platters of yogurt samples, Mr. Duffy praised Chobani for having “put New York State on the map” in the yogurt world. He proceeded to rattle off, from memory, the state's yogurt-related vital signs: 5,300 dairy farms, 611,000 dairy cows, 3.6 million pounds of daily milk deliveries to Chobani's plant in Chenango County.

“That's an awful lot of milk,” Mr. Duffy sa id, adding, “Governor Cuomo is so proud of the fact that New York State has become the yogurt capital.”

Chobani's yogurt bar, which was formerly a Swatch store, opened last week. It offers plain Chobani yogurt starting at $2.75 as well as “yogurt creations” ($3.75) created on-site by “master yogurt makers.” Mr. Duffy was particularly intrigued by the “Blueberry + Power” offering, which includes blueberries, chia seeds, hemp, walnuts and light agave. (He said his usual purchase was a large container of vanilla Chobani yogurt.)

The Cuomo administration has been quite enthusiastic about yogurt. Last year, Mr. Cuomo personally intervened to resolve a dispute between two upstate mayors that was holding up the expansion of a plant for a Greek yogurt company, Fage USA. Mr. Cuomo included Greek yogurt in the Super Bowl bet he made with his counterpart in Massachusetts, and his administration featured Fage in a television commercial that is part of a new a dvertising campaign aimed at attracting new businesses to New York.