Eileen's Special Cheesecake opened for business in December, 1975, and arrived in lower Manhattan on December 4, 1976. It was a "ghost town" when I first arrived, but that didn't bother me because the rent was low and I desperately needed a place to bake for my growing wholesale business. I hadn't considered the retail aspects of the business until people started knocking on the door of the bakery wanting to buy cheesecake. With that encouragement, I purchased a bakery case and began to conduct retail business. Soon after our cheesecake attracted the press and we were listed in "Best Bites" in New York Magazine. Radio station WOR rated us "Number One Cheesecake" and we appeared on television quite often whipping up batters of cheesecake. Time passed, and now Cleveland Place is in a popular area where the mix of people and restaurants and shops are so unique. Downtown is becoming the "place to be", and we are actually on most maps now. We survived difficult times, and now "let the good times roll"!