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 Marc Schulman hasn’t forgotten his roots either. He provides the same level of customer care at his Chicago cheesecake business that made his father, Eli Schulman, a legend in the Windy City’s restaurant industry.
Started in the early 1940s, Eli’s The Place for Steak was a favorite hangout of stars such as Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. The cheesecake dessert became such a popular menu item that in 1980 the family spun off Eli’s Cheesecake ( http://www.elischeesecake.com ) to focus solely on the sweets.
Eli’s Cheesecakes is a retail and wholesale supplier to clients across the country. One of the most popular online produces is the “C-cake®,” a made-to-order cheesecake customers build themselves, choosing their favorite topping, border, decorations or even a personalized message.
Unlike the Weavers, Schulman has been online since the early days of the Internet. Though Eli’s Cheesecake was a part of Chicago Online in 1995, the company resisted pouring cash into online ventures.
“We were much more conservative about it,” says Schulman. “From the beginning we never said, ‘We’re going to change our entire business to e-commerce.’ ”
To him, abandoning a formula that works didn’t make sense. Instead, he chose to stick to a family-owned recipe for success.
“The Internet is a great way to reach lots of customers quickly. It’s a growing part of our business, but it’s definitely not the most significant.”
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