By Pamela A. Zinkosky
Cheesecake lovers, take note: Peteet’s Famous Cheesecakes in Oak Park serves at least 30 cheesecake varieties daily, with 60 more varieties on hand to swap in. There’s the original smooth and creamy cheesecake with a graham cracker crust, the sweet potato cheesecake with its secret blend of spices, and the banana with a vanilla wafer crust, to name a few.
Even if cheesecake isn’t your thing, you might want to check it out.
“We are 100 percent on taste,” says owner Patrick Peteet. Everybody who tries a Peteet’s cheesecake loves it, he says. “And we have a 95 percent conversion rate. By that I mean, some people say, ‘I don’t like cheesecake.’ When they taste ours, they like it.”
That’s something to brag about, considering the business’s humble beginnings. The Peteets owned an Oak Park realty company, where Patrick worked for 20 years. With the sub prime mortgage crisis and all that followed came hard times for the real estate business and for the family. “We lost our homes, our cars,” Patrick says. “We pretty much lost everything.”
To make a few extra dollars, Patrick, a baker by hobby since childhood, started making cheesecakes at home and selling them. He and his brother would bake and sell 30 cheesecakes on weekends.
The cheesecakes’ popularity sparked an entrepreneurial idea, which led to a building lease and closure of Peteet’s Realty, and the opening of Peteet’s Famous Cheesecakes on Nine Mile Road just west of Coolidge in Oak Park in September 2010.
The Peteets – Patrick, his mother brother and cousin – equipped the store with an oven fit to make 150 cheesecakes per hour. Patrick bakes three days a week and freezes the cakes for optimal freshness.
Peteet’s visitors can choose from 30 cheesecake varieties, with free samples on hand to make sure they choose their favorite. They can try a slice for $3.50 or take home half a cheesecake for $13.25 to $14.25 – depending on the variety – or a whole cheesecake for $25.95. There are also toppings like strawberry, caramel and blueberry.
The cheesecakes are smooth and creamy, but not heavy, Patrick says, and you’re not tasting a bunch of cream cheese. “It has a lot of flavor – not like you’re eating a bagel with cream cheese. We don’t let the cheese overpower the cheesecake.”
Peteet’s also has a top sour cream-based layer that adds to the cheesecakes’ richness, Patrick says. It’s baked on top after the base firms up.
Patrick says he put his name on the business because people trusted in the Peteets’ realty business, and because he stands behind his product, which contains only the finest ingredients.
“We’re the Haagen-Dazs of cheesecake,” Patrick says, adding that, even as the business expands, product quality will never change. “What you taste now is what you’re going to get 20 years down the road.”
What’s more, Peteet’s recently got a seal of approval from Kosher Michigan, certifying that its products are all made with kosher ingredients and follow strict food preparation requirements.
Right now, the Peteets have one storefront for cheesecake sales, but the company’s cheesecakes are also in a few restaurants, and plans are under way to create a shipping process, so customers can get them delivered to their door.
There are also plans for more locations and new products, like Peteet’s Famous Cheesecakes ice cream. Patrick says he’s partnering with a local ice cream maker for that.
For now, the family business continues to provide mom-and-pop personalized customer service backed by sophisticated business operations and, of course, a top-notch product.
Try the strawberry delight – a fundraiser for the Karmanos Cancer Institution – the peanut butter and jelly or the five flavor with coconut, rum, almond extract, vanilla extract and lemon extract. Or go for a cheesecake cupcake or cheesecake brownie. The options are endless.
“Even if we don’t see you but once a year, we’re going to give you something to talk about,” Patrick says of customers who visit the Oak Park store.
Visit www.peteetscheesecakes.com for a menu and more information. The store is located at 13835 Nine Mile Road in Oak Park and is open Tuesday through Friday 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.