Business notebook: Man's cheesecake whim becomes a full-time vocation

It started as a hobby, but being the Cheesecake Ninja now is Greg Franklin's full-time gig.

"The cheesecake thing was a total accident," he said.

He was a music promoter who tried making a cheesecake on a whim. He came across a photo and recipe for cheesecake online and tried to replicate it.

"And it was ugly," Franklin acknowledged, but he snapped a picture, posted it to Facebook and tried again.

"It became kind of a habit, making them and giving them away," he said.

Greg Franklin, aka Cheesecake Ninja, shows off his varieties of cheesecake Tuesday at the Bank of Missouri in Cape Girardeau.Andrew J. Whitaker

One of those early cakes went to the Jackson Police Department. Others went to relatives. It was at a relative's birthday party someone suggested he do mini-cheesecakes.

"I'd never done it before, but I said, 'Sure, I'll try it,'" he said.

So he made a batch and announced them for sale online.

"Within an hour, I'd sold eight dozen," he said.

The next batch he announced, however, there were no takers whatsoever.

"So I thought it had been kind of a fluke," he said.

When his sister-in-law jokingly called him a cheesecake ninja, he knew what to call his business once he "made it legal," he said.

His brother-in-law suggested his tagline: "Assassinate your cravings."

He now serves Jackson, Cape Girardeau and Perryville, baking his cheesecakes in health-department-certified kitchens.

"Mostly, I just show up, and people like to pick this one or that one," he said, adding Perryville has become his most popular market.

In August, he plans to begin serving select locations in St. Louis and St. Genevieve, Missouri.

Among his more than 80 regular clients are some of his former teachers.

"I always joke that I failed at home ec, and now, here I am, selling cheesecakes," he said.

Part of his cakes' appeal, he said, comes from an active marketing effort on social media, but also from the broad -- and unusual --menu.

He offers banana-pudding cheesecakes, Mexican-chocolate cheesecakes and cheesecakes that look and taste like a giant Samoa Girl Scout cookie.

"Flavor-wise, it's unlimited," he said, describing everything from traditional cheesecake to a Flamin' Hot Cheeto cheesecake and the peanut-butter-banana-bacon recipe called the "Elvis."

"I'm around my 70th flavor," he said. "And my plan is to have 125 flavors."

The Cheesecake Ninja is on Facebook, Franklin's preferred method of contact.

SOTO Property offers in-house maintenance

SOTO Property Solutions clients now have access to web-based service and maintenance requests that will be handled by an in-house maintenance team, the company announced in a news release.

The services include HVAC repair and replacement, plumbing, electrical, painting, power-washing, drywall, carpentry, floor work, gutter cleaning and trash removal.

Maintenance personnel are qualified, licensed and insured.

SoutheastHEALTH extends Ripley lease

SoutheastHEALTH has extended its lease renewal agreement 10 years at the Southeast Health Center of Ripley County, Missouri.

The $10,000-per-month lease now will expire March 1, 2027.

"This renewed agreement is reflective of SoutheastHEALTH's ongoing commitment to providing 24/7 healthcare services to residents of Ripley County and also exemplifies the outstanding support of the Ripley County Memorial Board of Trustees," said Ken Bateman, president and CEO of SoutheastHEALTH. "The financial performance of Southeast Health Center of Ripley County is improving largely due to the collaborative effort from both the community and Southeast Health working together to find solutions to challenging problems. I'm confident with ongoing community support that we will stay on this trajectory for future years to come."

"We will continue to enhance and grow services in Ripley County," Bateman said. "That underscores our ongoing commitment to providing quality health-care services close to home."

Business license

Patrice Parson applied for a license to operate Philosophie, a women's retail clothing, gifts and home-decor store at 201 S. Mount Auburn Road, Suite E. Parson, who also owns Ophelia in downtown, bought the business, formerly Philanthropy, from Bridgett Kielhofner.

tgraef@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3627