WILMINGTON — Main Street has a new place for frozen treats.
Papsy’s Place at 115 W. Main St. has been letting locals check out their frozen yogurt during preview nights.
Around three years ago, Tara Lydy and her husband Ken had been thinking about opening a place in Wilmington, but they weren’t sure what they’d serve.
“We started thinking about ice cream. We love frozen yogurt and we love the interactive aspect,” said Tara. “Every day it can be something different. That’s how we settled on this.”
The shop has three frozen yogurt machines with different flavors for customers to choose from, plus a toppings station. The Lydys plan on changing out the flavors and toppings frequently.
They provide regular frozen yogurt along with ones that are non-dairy, have zero trans fat, and no sugar added.
Before opening up Papsy’s — named after Ken’s father — the two worked at Wilmington College for almost 20 years in student affairs.
Both of them described the past week as unbelievable.
“One night, when we had one flavor, but we had a line with people constantly coming in,” said Ken.
They attribute a lot of their exposure and business to word-of-mouth and social media posts.
“We haven’t done any more advertising than those two things. But as we get the grand opening under our belts, we’ll do a little bit more,” he said.
He added that one thing they thought was neat was seeing a group of 15- and 16-year-olds hanging out.
“That’s what we want. We want people to have a treat but also hang out, talk, and build the community,” he said.
Tara added that when people leave, she asks them how things were — and sees if they were leaving with a smile. If they say yes, then they met their goal.
“We want people to feel good when they come here, and make memories,” she said.
The Lydys have been working with the Wilmington-Clinton County Chamber of Commerce on an opening date for August, though no official date has been set.
For additional info on Papsy’s, visit their Facebook page facebook.com/PapsysPlace.
