A compelling craving led the Indiana University alumna and former real estate agent to buy her retiring vendor's establishment three years ago. Since then, her work has facilitated hundreds of other customers' dependency, and enthusiasm for her products has snowballed.
After a five-year addiction, Joyce Mattingly's weakness has truly become her greatest asset. Mattingly's addiction is not drug or alcohol related, though. In fact, her substance abuse has health benefits.
She purchased Muncie's Incredible Yogurt, a frozen yogurt, salad, soup and sandwich shop, not only because she enjoyed the cool, smooth low-fat treats, but also because she aspired to expand the restaurant's existing food menu.
As an extension of her interest in healthy living, she added a variety of vegetarian entrees, such as ten sandwiches--including sloppy joes, barbecued pork, veggie and turkey burgers--fresh salads and eight soup selections, available every day.
Mattingly boasts, "We don't fry anything," and said business went from being about 20 percent food to 60 percent food. She said the most popular sandwich is currently chicken salad on a croissant.
"We offer what other popular fast-food restaurants do not," she said. "I don't want to serve the same things people can get at McDonald's."
Located directly across the street from the famous Golden Arches and a block from Burger King, Incredible Yogurt is adjacent to Dairy Queen, another leading seller of food and dessert items.
Mattingly said Dairy Queen's competition is not as threatening as it appears, because people with health-conscious eating habits, an insatiable sweet tooth or a combination of the two comprise a loyal customer base.
Frozen yogurt is a more expensive commodity than soft-serve ice cream, she said, and it can often be a struggle to maintain low prices. She avoids passing on products' inflated prices to her customers by shopping around for high-quality products at competitive prices.
She said it's surprising how many people don't understand the conceptual difference between ice cream, frozen custard, regular yogurt and frozen yogurt.
"It's been difficult to get through to people that frozen yogurt is healthy and it doesn't taste like the store-bought yogurt," she said. "Many people have never heard of it or have just never tried it before, but once they taste it, they're hooked, and we know we'll see them again.
"The only job that could be better than mine would have to be a flower-delivery service," she said, "because everyone comes in and leaves with a smile."
She finds satisfaction in serving smiling faces but confesses that her work is sometimes stressful. For example, when she doesn't receive cross-country shipments from California on time, certain orders can't be prepared.
"It's disappointing for me when a customer with special needs, such as a diabetic or heart patient, comes in for a sugar-free or lactose-free flavor or sugar-free hot fudge and it's not in," she said. "But that happens rarely."
The shop features six daily flavors:-á chocolate, vanilla and four others that vary. Mattingly said there are always two diet flavors available, as well as a fruit flavor and an unusual specialty flavor, such as Purple Cow (grape-tasting), peanut butter, white chocolate mousse, grasshopper, malt or dreamsicle, just to name a few.
Employees enjoy experimenting with flavor combinations, she said, to concoct new tastes, such as swirling peanut butter and Purple Cow in a waffle cone to make a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich-flavored treat.
A complete toppings bar accommodates even the most creative and complex sundae recipe's requirements.
Mattingly developed Incredicones, yogurt-filled cones dipped in chocolate, when her father, who had always liked Drumstick cones, had triple-bypass heart surgery and was unable to continue eating fatty ice cream.
She added another of her recipes, frozen, chocolate-dipped bananas, after seeing a similar product at a fair. "I can make those," she said. And they've been in the store's freezer case ever since.
Mattingly said she has always enjoyed cooking and being in her own kitchen, but she had never worked in a restaurant prior to acquiring the business. "It was a tough first six months, and I couldn't have done it without my kids," she said. "They keep me young."
But her "kids" are her employees, as her 25-year-old son, a Purdue University grad, is not involved in Mattingly's venture. "Neli is like an adopted daughter to me," Mattingly said.
Neli Minchev, a manager who first worked for Incredible Yogurt's previous owner, said her experience there has prompted a drastic change in career interest, from midwife training to business administration studies at Taylor University.
She has witnessed much change during Mattingly's term. "The area has become more and more developed with surrounding businesses and student apartments," she said. "So there is a younger crowd here nowadays."
With an increased number of college-age patrons, Mattingly's main source of advertisement is word-of-mouth. She said she also donates coupons and gift certificates to school carnivals and raffles.
Incredible Yogurt is located near Muncie's Target store at 3804 W. Bethel Ave. For more information about specific flavors, call 282-2280. Store hours are 10 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., seven days a week.
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