Main Street Just Got Sweeter

The Sweet Spot in Integrity Plaza on West Main Street is a community-oriented yogurt shop serving topnotch self-serve frozen yogurts and toppings.

Cartersville Patch recently sat down with owner Kasey Carpenter to learn more about what his small business has to offer the community. Here's what we asked and he answered:

Q: How would you describe The Sweet Spot?

A: We just opened a store in Dalton, Georgia that’s very similar to your other chains except we’re just an independent business. We serve Honey Hill Farms yogurt, which is a premium yogurt out of Arkansas. But the concept is very similar to other frozen yogurt concepts. You have 14 flavors and 30 toppings, daily.

Q: Why did you pick this spot? Why did you pick Cartersville?

A: Actually I have a restaurant in Dalton, called The Oakwood Café and we’re real big about downtown areas. We were actually looking at putting an Oakwood in Cartersville. We had some financing issues, so we went ahead and brought The Sweet Spot first. We also opened a Sweet Spot in downtown Calhoun, so we really focus on downtown areas. We’re real big community people, and so that’s kinda what we do.

Q: What’s the philosophy behind The Sweet Spot?

A: We just want to run a self-serve frozen yogurt concept that is community minded, that serves a great product and gets really involved in the community and also serving God. We’re closed on Sunday.

Q: How do you anticipate getting involved in the community in the future?

A: We’re real big with and downtown development authorities. Pretty much any non-profit organization that walks in the door, we partner up with them in some form or fashion. Our opening day we gave ten percent of the sales to Relay for Life. We just try to say yes as much as we can to things.

Q: What are your most popular flavors?

A: Sorbets, white chocolate mousse, peanut butter. I prefer the tart flavors but it really just depends. Cookies and cream is great. There’re a lot of flavors.

Q: How about toppings?

A: Depends on if you’re a child or an adult, I guess. Gummy bears for the kids. Adults, probably the fresh fruit. Strawberries, mango, kiwis, stuff like that.

Q: Tell me about why you, personally, decided to open The Sweet Spot. Are you the founding owner of this? Is it a franchise?

A: It’s just basically independent. We opened in Dalton and it caught on like wildfire, so we decided to open them up. You know, open up as many as we can without going crazy. But, I grew up in a TCBY franchise when I was a kid. As these yogurt concepts were popping up all over the place I thought, “I can do that!” I did that for 12 years of my life as a kid. Plus, I missed yogurt. We hadn’t had yogurt…I hadn’t eaten much yogurt probably in the past 10 years, so I felt like there was a void there.

Q: Anything you want people to know about your store?

A: That it’s a cute store (laughs). The biggest thing is, we just want people to know we’re not like a normal franchise deal. We want to be involved in the community and we want to be part of a downtown area and I think Cartersville has a neat downtown, I mean it could be awesome. And it is awesome, but I mean there could be more shops and more people congregating down there, I think.

For a fun treat, visit The Sweet Shop and make your own frozen yogurt dessert! The yogurt comes from a small dairy out of Arkansas that uses the freshest ingredients. You can taste real cheesecake bites in their cheesecake flavor and fresh strawberries in their strawberry flavor. The shop is open Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.