The owner of our franchise of 16 Handles, Neil Hershman, acquired the entire company and is now CEO of what is a chain of 35 locations.

M. wrote to tell me that the original founder of the business, Solomon Choi, had died suddenly at 44. Born in South Korea, he came to the States to attend USC, graduated in 2002, and moved to the city, where he opened what was the first self-serve frozen yogurt company — it’s now the name I use for any of those places — in 2008.

But when I read the People magazine story about his death, I recognized the current CEO’s name from when he opened our location on Chambers in October 2020. At the time he was 25, and as I said then, really fit the “new kid” descriptor. Tribeca then was his fourth location, all of which he acquired within a few months in 2019.

After opening on Chambers during the pandemic, Hershman continued to add to his portfolio, acquiring more than a dozen locations, and in August 2022, bought the entire company from Choi. His partner is Danny Duncan, the comedic YouTube star, who first visited 16 Handles at our location and clearly became a superfan. Duncan, who has amassed over 1.5 billion views on YouTube and generated over $50 million in merchandise sales from 2020-2021, is now the 16 Handles chief creative officer.

And in case you are not a regular, they have 16 rotating flavors and and a couple dozen toppings, plus ice cream and vegan options including oat milk soft serve and all-fruit sorbets.