Justin Featherstone likes to keep up on his frozen yogurt news.

“I just googled ‘frozen yogurt news in the DMV’ and an article popped up about the sale,” the Baltimore native says about how he came to be party to what surely must be the city’s most Willy Wonka-esque business dealing. For the grand total of $1, he is the new owner of beloved Dupont Circle froyo shop, Mr. Yogato.

“I’m ready to take it on,” says Featherson, who officially takes over on November 1 and already has plans to add cheesecake and bubble tea to the shop’s offerings.

Steve Davis, an engineer for SpaceX and The Boring Company, opened the small and proudly eccentric business a decade ago. To call Mr. Yogato a passion project would be underselling it.

The whole thing started because Davis, who had moved from Los Angeles, was dismayed by D.C.’s lack of froyo options. So he got 21 of his friends, family members, and rocket scientist colleagues to invest and then proceeded to bring one to life.

Not realizing there were commercial mixes available, Davis taught himself how to make frozen yogurt. “I literally started mixing yogurt and milk and sugar in random quantities,” he says. When he and his friends couldn’t decide between two versions, they decided to sell two basics among the rotating list of flavors: original soft and original tangy.

And they set up a series of off-the-wall rules to get discounts. Reciting the Stirling battlefield speech from Braveheart in a “great Scottish accent,” for example, will get you 20 percent off. Anyone who gets a yogurt for 30 days in a row would have a flavor named after themselves.  “The whole point of it is to be the most fun, quirky place ever,” Davis says.

Back in 2008, it was also one of the only froyo offerings in the District. An explosion of Pinkberries and other shops with cutesy names followed, but Mr. Yogato outlasted nearly all of them.

For as much as he still loves the shop, Davis’ work schedule has pulled him away. With the 10-year lease coming up for renewal, he decided it was time for someone with more time and fresh ideas to take over. So in late August, Davis made an announcement and an offer: “Mr. Yogato” would retire, but hoped to sell the shop to a “worthy yogurt enthusiast for $1.”

Davis knows the business is likely worth well more than a buck, but finding a creative new owner who would embody the shop’s ethos was more important to him.

More than 240 people applied. Many of them were more interested in the building, but Davis still had a healthy pool to choose from.

“Based on good grammar and funny emails, we picked the 16 funniest contenders and invited them to an open house at the store,” he says. Twelve interested inheritors showed up, one of whom was Featherstone.

The 38-year-old owns BerryCup in Rockville, which explains why he regularly scours the internet for the latest updates about frozen treats.

Like Davis, he also has an unusual dual career. In addition to the ice cream and frozen yogurt shop, Featherstone works as a music producer, counting credits on songs from Trey Songz, Wiz Khalifa, and The Fate of the Furious soundtrack, among others. Along with his brothers, he also co-owns a boundary-pushing Hiatus Cheesecake bakery in Baltimore that will soon have a presence as part of Mr. Yogato.

Featherstone says the combination isn’t as strange as it might sound. “With frozen yogurt and the bakery, you can be creative with the flavors or the toppings,” he says. “It’s another level of being creative.”

Although Featherstone had never been to Mr. Yogato before, Davis says his introductory email was an initial draw, including his sign-off: Justin Featherstone, “top level yogurt enthusiast.” Davis had christened himself “man of yogurt,” so the pairing already felt apt.

Davis saw Featherstone’s enthusiasm for the concept, and knew that he wouldn’t turn it into a generic chain. And he had confidence that Featherstone could run the business, given his entrepreneurial background.

Just like the unorthodox sale itself, the contract has some unusual stipulations. Featherstone has to keep the flavors named after past 30-day champions, the trivia rules, a game named after Davis’ father, and at least one SpaceX poster. Oh, and Davis is contractually entitled to one free bubble tea every week.

But beyond that, they’re both excited to see the shop continue to evolve in its quirkiness. Featherstone is already thinking about some kind of karaoke discount.

In the meantime, he’s adding bubble tea and about five rotating cheesecake flavors each day (think ginger, lemon, wasabi, bourbon peach, Oreo, and other inventive options) to the menu on November 1. He envisions it developing from just a froyo shop to a dessert place “where you go to treat yourself.”

The entire staff is remaining on board, according to Featherstone.

Davis says that he too will be back all the time to visit and get his weekly bubble tea.

He’s not entirely sure what would have happened if he couldn’t find a taker. Would he have had the heart to close the doors forever?

We’ll never know. It’s Justin Featherstone’s yogurt kingdom now.

Mr. Yogato will have a reopening party on Saturday, November 10. Anyone armed with a good dad joke will get half off bubble tea and cheesecake.