D'Lites Says its Treats are the Healthiest

There are ice cream shops, italian ice shops, and yogurt shops locally, but Haidee Ganz-Bonhurst wants to offer a different choice to locals – a low-calorie, low-carbohydrate, low-sugar ice cream, made with skim milk.

Ganz-Bonhurst plans on doing this with her new business venture, D’Lites, a type of business that she said Smithtown is lacking.

“I brought it out here because I found it in Woodbury and I just loved all the different flavors of ice cream,” she said. “There’s like 150 rotating flavors and you have a lot of options and it just felt like something Smithtown could use.”

In addition to the ice cream, D’Lites will offer cakes, ice cream sandwiches, coffee and more.

However, D'Lites isn't the only ice cream shop boasting about offering healthy treats. National frozen yogurt chain Red Mango, which has been open on Main Street for a little over a year, advertises its frozen yogurt as being nonfat and full of probiotics, the same good bacteria found in yogurt.

Ganz-Bonhurst is no stranger to running a business in Smithtown, she operated Metropolitan Physical Therapy East open for 17 years. A physical therapist and certified athletic trainer, she said owning an ice cream store has provided a pleasant experience that differs from an often-frustrating field.

“I treat people and could not get paid for three months, four months … I spend half my day fighting with insurance companies and the other half treating my patients,” she said. “Here, it’s a very light, happy environment … it’s kind of nice when they order an ice cream and they pay for the ice cream, you’re getting paid at the time of service.”

Smithtown’s D’Lites will have lots of family involvement as Ganz-Bonhurst plans to have her sons work at the location, hoping it will teach them valuable lessons of the importance of hard work and being fiscally responsible.

“It’s important to me that they learn business and that they have a place to go every day,” she said. “With everything that kids are getting into now, whether it be drugs, alcohol, the parties, I would rather them stay embedded in sports and business … I would rather them see a paycheck coming in and if they want something they can buy it.”

Other than her sons, she has hired other kids within the community, and plans on increasing her staff with more local kids when the weather starts to warm up.

The chain has come under fire recently, due to a "Shame Shame Shame" segment that aired on Fox 5 News last spring. In the report, reporter Arnold Diaz alleged lab tests revealed the carbohydrate, fat and sugar content in the desserts served by D'Lites were much higher than the company advertised.

In June, in Commack  against Fox 5 and its parent company, News Corp, calling the report "grossly irresponsible."

Since the initial airing, several D'Lites franchisees in Florida have filed a lawsuit against D'Lites on claims that the product was misrepresented to them.

Ganz-Bonhurst said planned for an Aug. 1 opening but citing difficulties with Suffolk County’s Office of Waste water Management, could not open until Nov. 5. While the fall is not the best season to open an ice cream shop, she is confident Smithtown will gravitate to having another dessert option with healthier choices.

“People should have choices and there was nothing around here that gave them a choice like this,” she said. “People have a tremendous amount of variety that they can choose from here.”

D’Lites is located at 55 Route 111 in Smithtown, and is open Sunday through Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.