Business Profile: Swirls Frozen Yogurt, Mahopac

By Dean Tomasula

Despite only having been open for just shy of one month, already Michelle DiPaolo, owner of Swirls Frozen Yogurt in Mahopac, can identify the shop’s best-selling yogurt flavor: Cake Batter. She says the yogurt flavors are changed every week – except the very popular ones – just to keep things fresh.

“Everyone has a favorite,” DiPaolo said. “What happened was, we had Cake Batter, and then we decided to change out the Cake Batter for another flavor–this wasn’t a good thing–and everyone was like, ‘Where’s the Cake Batter?’ Then everyone says ‘I like Pistachio’ so we added that in. We had to decide which one to switch.”

She notes that Swirls will always offer customers’ favorite flavors.

“That’s our goal. To keep everybody happy.”

In addition to the nearly dozen flavors of frozen yogurt available at Swirls, the shop also offers customers more than 45 toppings–including pretzels, brownie pieces, Kit Kat and Twix. Not to mention about a dozen different sauces–from hot fudge to berry sauce. DiPaolo says she plans to add strawberry soon.

“Not many yogurt shops have a hot fudge machine,” she points out. “But because I like chocolate, that was important.”

The shop also offers smoothies, ice cream, custom ice cream cakes and candy.

“We always want to keep our customers happy and have a good selection of fruit flavors. What’s important is we’ll always have non-dairy and we’ll always have a no-sugar, along with all the other popular flavors,” DiPaolo says.

Swirls employs a staff of 18, mostly college students. DiPaolo, a Westchester County resident, says they work staggered hours so some employees’ shifts overlap. She runs three shifts per day. There are usually three employees manning the store during the week, but on the busy nights she has four working. The shop is open from noon until 9:30 p.m. during the week and until 10:00 p.m. on weekends.

Surprisingly, she says, Friday and Sunday night are busier than Saturday night. “I’m not sure why. It could be a weather thing. We don’t exactly know why that is yet.”

Also surprising, she says, is that her customers are mostly families, who come in after school with their children.

“We have more families than I would have thought,” she says. “I thought it would be mostly teenagers. But it depends on the time of day.”

Now that the weather is getting warmer, she plans to put a few tables and chairs out back on the patio so customers can eat outdoors.

In the summer, if customers expect the shop to be open past 10:00 p.m., DiPaolo says she’ll keep the shop open later. The philosophy behind Swirls is simple, she notes: Everyone should enjoy the experience.

“I wanted kids to like it and I wanted adults to like it,” she says of the shop’s decor. “Everybody that comes seems in awe. Sometimes the kids come in and their jaws drop.”

The idea for the comfortable seating and the upbeat, fun colors were hers and her sisters–who jointly designed the interior. DiPaolo is a designer and her sister is an artist.

“It’s definitely something unique to this area,” she says of the design.

It’s also very “kid friendly,” she notes. Swirls offers comfortable banquettes for the adults and children’s seating below the front window. The idea is to make it comfortable for people of all ages so they’ll stay and enjoy themselves.

“We want it to be a place where people will come and hang out,” DiPaolo says of Swirls. “Most people are promoting the in and out because it’s a volume business. We have people that stay here for an hour. Sometimes more. Sometimes we’re closing and they’re still not leaving.”

Swirls Frozen Yogurt is located at 250 Route 6, Mahopac. For more information call 845-621-2751.