Reporters
Madeleine Gertsen and Emilia Savini
While most frozen yogurt places captivate their customers with an array of toppings and a myriad of flavors, a recently opened “fro-yo” store, Peachwave, seeks to draw in customers with their local performers and other twists on fro-yo tradition.
Peachwave Manager, Ryan Ventura strives to differentiate Peachwave from the five other competing ice cream stores in New Canaan. “We don’t want to be like a fast food place where you get your food and leave,” he said. “We want it to be a place where you come, sit, enjoy, hang with friends, listen to music, and create solid memories.”
Peachwave employee, senior Alyssa Berry, feels that the contemporary aspects of Peachwave are reflected in the store’s environment. “The atmosphere is really modern and we always have new entertainment, so there’s a lot of action,” she said. “It’s really new and it’s always current.”
Intrigued by the local talent in New Canaan, Mr.Ventura hopes to use Peachwave as a platform for growing artists and performers. “Everybody wants a chance to be heard and people are putting up YouTube videos and waiting for likes but we want to take it from the virtual world to the real world,” he said. “We want to be the first chance for local talent and we want to be that place when the performers look back and talk about where they got their first gig.”
Senior Davis Baer, who will be performing at Peachwave on Friday, May 9th, is excited that Peachwave is opening its doors to budding performers. “It’s always great to help encourage young people to pick up music. Performing locally makes it less stressful and lets people without experience perform in front of groups of people,” he said. “It’s a place they can start at before becoming comfortable in bigger venues.”
Peachwave employee, senior Jenna Sachs, believes that bringing in musicians will draw in customers and add to the overall ambiance. “The local talent would be great to bring to Peachwave because it will attract customers,” she said. “So many people are here all the time and it will make their experience that much better.”
Mr.Ventura agrees that the additional entertainment will compliment their frozen yogurt product and encourage people to stick around. “I think what really makes us different, is that we serve a better quality product and that we aren’t just here to sell frozen yogurt,” he said. “We are here to provide an experience for people to come and enjoy.”
Alyssa believes that the various aspects which make Peachwave, will add to the family-oriented environment. “We have a lot of events going on like open mic, movie nights, card games, and just entertainment all around,” she said. “We want to bring the community together and the families together as well.”
In addition to hosting performers, Mr.Ventura hopes to host other events such as fundraisers. “The biggest thing we want to do is give back to the school through supporting clubs and other events through fundraisers which we can host here,” he said. “It is super easy and can raise a lot of money for clubs. They can contact me for more information at ryan@peachwavefroyo.com.”
