“Fun has come to the Town of Scottsville,” says Jini Bitzer, owner of Twist! Specialty Soft Serve, a new frozen yogurt shop located on Valley Street. “We’ve got this cute, little building. It looks a party out here.”

Twist! officially opened on May 27, more than six weeks after Bitzer and her partner Cameron Crounse went on a road trip in search of the perfect product.

“We really like soft serve ice cream and we did some research, went around tried a bunch of different soft serve businesses” all the way to North Carolina, where the duo found “a place called Taste. They had a new, self-serve business model of soft serve frozen yogurt,” Bitzer says. Though her new place does not have the room to allow self-service, Twist! offers “a premium product with a lot of taste,” meant to guarantee repeat business.

“Frozen yogurt isn’t just delicious, it’s actually good for you. It has 10 million active cultures per ounce—a lot of active pro-biotic cultures.” The shop owner says the nonfat product has significantly higher protein as well—and also tastes great.

Twist! has been well-received by the public. 

“A whole bunch of people come in from walking up and down the street or walking towards the river, looking at the sights after dinner. [The shop] was pretty busy considering we didn’t have any signage.”

Signage or not, it is difficult to miss the freshly painted yellow brick building next to Scottsville’s Dollar General store. And while the exterior provides cheerful attraction, inside the frozen yogurt shop could feel like a dream.

“We have an authentic 1940s five-headed milkshake machine, powder coated red, DaVinci gourmet syrups, jelly beans, skittles, candy bars, hot fudge, brownies…” along with two soft serve machines full of Tahitian Vanilla, Dreamy Dark Chocolate and Classic Tart: “it’s sweet-tart, a good base for fruit mix-ins and also very good by itself,” says the new business owner. She plans to rotate other delicious flavors at the frozen yogurt shop, as well.

“In spite of the fact that we have all these different toppings and mix-ins, the Dreamy Dark Chocolate is very, very good if you’ve got a real chocolate craving,” she says. Bitzer’s own favorite dish so far is strawberry flavored frozen yogurt, “and I didn’t feel that guilty about shoveling some real strawberries in.”

Twist! Specialty Soft Serve is open Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, noon to 8 p.m., with Friday and Saturday hours extended noon to 9 p.m. The shop is at 501 Valley St., Scottsville. Walk-ins are welcome and some outdoor seating is provided.