Peachy Keen Finding Success in Mount Carmel

Drive into the parking lot of Sleeping Giant Corner, the new shopping plaza at the intersection of Whitney Avenue and West Woods Road, on any given evening and it's likely you're going to have trouble finding a place to park.

And a big reason for that packed parking lot is Peachy Keen, the frozen yogurt shop that opened earlier this year.

The McMahon family of Hamden runs the shop that bills itself as the first self-service yogurt shop in town. They offer different flavors of yogurt that change periodically, and a wide variety of toppings. It's all sold by weight so customers can buy as much or as little as they please.

Current flavors include the usual fare: chocolate and vanilla, in addition to seasonal favorite pumpkin, and peanut butter, cheesecake and tart.

Toppings include chocolate and rainbow sprinkles, chocolate covered pretzels, kiwi, strawberries, coconut, M&Ms and crumbled Oreo cookies, snickers and peanut butter cups.

"I come here all the time," said Susan King, a student at Southern Connecticut State University who lives up the street from the store. "It's so good, the best I've had."

"Oh yea, she love her," her boyfriend Michael Rodgers confirmed. "We're here at least a couple times a week."

And another school a bit closer to Southern provides much of the customer base, employees said. Quinnipiac University is down the street from the shop and when school is in session, students pack the store.

But you don't have to feel so guilty about indulging. According to the store's Facebook page, "Frozen yogurt has live and active cultures known as probiotics which are beneficial for digestion and overall good health. It is also low to nonfat making it an overall healthier alternative to ice cream."

"I love ice cream, but you can eat it all the time because of the calories, so I stick to yogurt, and it's so good here you don't even know the difference," said Sara Bennington, who took her 2-year-old son Noah for a treat Wednesday afternoon.

Noah stuck with the tried-and-true chocolate with peanut butter cup topping, but Sara tried the pumpkin yogurt and opted to eat with sans toppings.

"It's really good," she said as she scooped up out of the cup. "Very pumpkiney."

Peachy Keen is open Sunday through Thursday from 12-10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 12-11 p.m.