Eli’s is a company that cares. Buy from them the next time you need cheesecake!
Written: Jul 01 '03 (Updated Jul 10 '03)
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UPDATE 7/10/03: Pictures of replacement cheesecake additional discussion of “cheesecake experience.”
Additional Resources:
If you would like to find out more about Eli’s Cheesecake or Steakhouse after you are done reading my review of their on-line store, you can do so here:
http://elischeesecake.com/
You can see pictures of my replacement cheesecake here:
http://homepage.mac.com/aric/epinions/PhotoAlbum72.html
Replacement cheesecake? Read on!
Into Every Life a Little Cheesecake Must Fall:
A friend of mine was having a birthday and he didn’t want a birthday gift from me. I knew that several people including myself were fans of cheesecake, so instead of a birthday cake (which no one I know really loves), I told him that I would bring the dessert.
Gads! What to do? No one I know owns a springform pan! ;-)
So I started looking around on the Internet for gourmet cheesecakes.
Problem is, there are a few places offering specialized cheesecake for sale on the Internet, but nowhere I’d ever heard of. I really didn’t want to take such an expensive chance. Plus, I didn’t want to go to any of my local bakeries, since most of them are Italian and only offer Italian cheesecake.
For the benefit of any layperson that may have stumbled across this review, there are two “main” styles of cheesecake:
1) Italian: This kind tends to be somewhat sweeter and is made with Italian cheese (typically ricotta). This makes Italian style cheesecake generally fluffier and gives a unique non-uniform texture (I liken it to sweetened cottage cheese with smaller particles). Fans of this type of cheesecake a probably cursing me now (probably in Italian). :) As you can perhaps tell, I am not a huge fan of this sort of cheesecake.
2) New York: New York style cheesecake uses cream cheese and tends to be richer, denser and somewhat less sweet. New York cheesecake should ideally hit the stomach like a ton of delicious lead weights, no “light and fluffy” here. :) OK, so that’s perhaps not the best description, but I think you get the idea.
Then there is:
http://elischeesecake.com/
I’d heard of that great Chicago landmark and I recalled seeing something about it on the TV Food Network.
Eli’s has been a Chicago-area tradition for many, many years. As a matter of fact, Eli’s cheesecake was part of Bill Clinton’s inaugural party (an immense, red, white and blue cheesecake – pictures available on Eli’s website):
http://elischeesecake.com/history/legend3.htm
Of the two “main” styles of cheesecake, Eli’s “Chicago” cheesecake is closest in style to New York cheesecake (i.e., it uses cream cheese). However, much as Chicago “deep dish” pizza is very different from the traditional hand-tossed NY pizza, so is Eli’s cheesecake different than your standard NY style cheesecake.
Eli’s cheesecake tends to be a little creamier than your standard NY style cheesecake (probably due, in part to the addition of sour cream to the recipe (not merely used as a topping). Otherwise, it shares a lot of the characteristics of the NY style… very rich and very filling.
As luck would have it, Eli’s delivers their cheesecake made fresh right to your door. You can call them or order right on their website.
Custom-made Heaven:
I thought this would be a nice touch for my friend’s birthday, something freshly made yet completely decadent. The problem was, what kind of cheesecake should I order? Eli’s offers many different flavors and even offers different samplers.
Then I ran across the “create your own cheesecake” area:
http://elischeesecake.com/indexccake.htm
(You will need the Macromedia Flash plugin to order your custom cheesecake.)
Here, you can actually have Eli’s design a special cheesecake customized to your specifications. The cool thing about it is you can see exactly what your custom cheesecake is going to look like on-screen before it ships.
The first thing you do is pick one of two different “uncut” cheesecake flavors (original or chocolate chip at the time of this review). I chose chocolate chip.
Next you choose a topping (like dark chocolate, whipped cream (yes, REAL whipped cream), chocolate mousse, caramel, etc.). I chose the dark chocolate topping.
After that, you choose two different “garnish” toppings (gummy bears, Reese’s peanut butter cups, Oreos, Heath Bar, etc.) I chose Oreo cookies and Reese’s peanut butter cups. It is worth noting that Eli’s REALLY DOES use the “real” candy topping, not just generic chocolate sandwich cookies and no-name peanut butter cups.
The final touch is a special milk chocolate disk that gets placed into the center of the cheesecake, on which can be written your own CUSTOM greeting message or personalization (written by hand in a special kind of icing, so the whole thing is edible.
Once you’ve designed your masterpiece, you tell them what state you are going to ship the cheesecake to and then complete your checkout process (or go shopping for more cheesecake).
The whole process is very smooth and easy. I had no problems during the ordering process.
So what will a custom designed cheesecake cost you? It cost me $64 total with shipping costs ($14). This is not a cheesecake for after Sunday dinner, this is a cheesecake for a special occasion, forget dinner altogether. :)
If you order a custom cheesecake, it takes 5-7 business days for delivery to your door (regular cheesecakes can be shipped more quickly). I ordered mine on Monday morning, and it was delivered to me via 2-day Fed Ex service on Friday of that week.
There are only two suggestions I made to Eli’s about their website:
1) They should list the average weight of the cheesecakes next to each kind they offer. I think knowing this would just emphasize just how special these cheesecakes really are.
2) They should also offer next day shipping as an option. If you are in a rush you can get the cheesecake one day sooner that way. Right now, everything goes out via Fed Ex 2-day service. I will say that their shipping costs don’t seem to be inflated like some other companies.
Receiving the Most Decadent Cheesecake in the World:
Eli’s makes it very clear on their website that they take every precaution to make sure your cheesecake arrives at your door in perfect condition.
The cheesecake itself is placed on a cardboard tray with an overly tall cardboard ring around the outside of the cheesecake (to protect any of the toppings from getting damaged). This whole thing gets tightly shrink-wrapped and then placed into a thick cardboard box that you can use to store the product in your refrigerator or freezer.
This box gets placed inside a large custom Styrofoam cooler that has dry ice in the bottom (the dry ice is inside a special plastic bag to insulate it somewhat from the bottom of the cheesecake box), while allowing the cold to keep the cheesecake frozen in transit (the cheesecake is shipped frozen).
This Styrofoam cooler is placed into a custom white Eli’s cheesecake shipping carton (festively festooned with the Eli’s cheesecake logo on almost all sides).
With all of this protection, what could possibly go wrong?
Initial Problems in Paradise:
Murphy’s Law definitely applies itself to my life with alarming regularity. :) Unfortunately, this was the case with my custom cheesecake.
The package itself arrived fine and none the worse for wear, so far as I could tell.
There were two problems, though:
The custom chocolate disk on the top of my custom cheesecake was cracked into about 10 pieces or so. This didn’t appear to be an issue with shipping, because the package was totally undamaged and the shrink-wrap was fine. Still, things happen, but I was rather disappointed because I had to try to reassemble the disk, but it still looked like what it was: broken. :(
However, there was another problem. There was no dry ice in the bottom of the package by the time I got it and the cheesecake had started to defrost, so I had to rush it into the refrigerator.
Thankfully, we were planning on having the cheesecake the next day, and it appears we got the cheesecake just in time and it had not spoiled (it was still cold, but not frozen when I received it).
Over the weekend, I used the “e-mail us” link on Eli’s website to inform them of the issues I had with the delivery of the product. None of them were catastrophic, but I thought they should know what happened… after all, I could have bought 3 cheesecakes from the local bakery for the price of this one custom cheesecake from Eli’s.
Still, no real harm done.
So How Does It Taste?
Other than noting the broken chocolate disk (which did, I must add, make it easier to share), most people didn’t know about the nearly defrosted cheesecake, and it certainly didn’t seem to affect the quality or taste of the finished product.
In short, the cheesecake was a hit. Everyone loved it.
I must say that I consider myself something of a cheesecake connoisseur and I was quite impressed with Eli’s. It is easily among the best cheesecake I’ve ever had. Don’t let the somewhat creamy, smooth texture fool you, Eli’s cheecakes are DENSE and even a small piece will fill you up completely.
By the way, Eli’s doesn’t mention it on their website, but the cheesecake I received weighed somewhere between 6 and 10 lbs. (No, I didn’t weigh it, but it was definitely over 5 lbs.)
So, was the cheesecake worth $64? Yes, I think it was. I don’t think the shipping problems I experienced are at all common (in fact, I think it’s extremely rare, but you’ll understand why I think so shortly). Plus one of these cakes can feed at least 20-30 people.
What REALLY Sets Eli’s Apart
Mistakes happen. We are all human. What sets truly GREAT company apart from a merely OK company is how they handle things when mistakes do occur.
Bright and early Monday morning I checked my e-mail to discover a message from Eli’s entitled “Apology from Eli’s”.
This e-mail was actually personally written by Marc Schulman, the president of Eli’s and the son of founder Eli Schulman. He profusely apologized for the problems I experienced and told me they would refund my money entirely AND ship me another cheesecake at any time I would so choose.
Talk about wanting to “make it right”! I actually felt guilty. After all, the cheesecake was fine and we were able to eat it. Refunding my money and shipping me another cheesecake meant that the company was willing to loose a lot of money on the sale to keep me as a happy customer. Plus, there were no excuses nor did I have to jump through flaming hoops to get the refund or reshipment. Further, this wasn’t from Eli’s customer service or a secretary for Marc, it really was the president himself.
I wrote him back letting him know that I was pleased that he was so willing to do everything possible to make it right. I also told him that I felt a refund and reshipping the cake was overkill, so I suggested that either he refund my shipping costs (since we were able to eat the cake OK) OR ship another cheesecake, but not both. I also told him that he need not reship a custom cheesecake, a flavor sampler would do.
I immediately got an e-mail back from both Marc and customer service telling me that they were going to refund my shipping costs AND reship me another cheesecake to arrive on Thursday, July 3 (I figured July 4th is as good a time as any to celebrate with cheesecake).
I wrote them all back and thanked them for going above and beyond the call of duty to make me happy.
When I got home that evening, I discovered something else… Marc had personally called me that morning to apologize in person and followed that up with the e-mail I received. Wow.
How many companies can YOU name where the president personally calls you when there is a problem with your order? :)
I can honestly say that I would have no issues ordering from Eli’s again, and thanks to the way they’ve handled things, they’ve insured that I will be ordering from them the next time I need a cheesecake for a special occasion.
UPDATE: Additional Eli Experience:
As promised, I did receive the replacement cheesecake on July 3, and this one arrived in perfect form. I took a few pictures of it so you can appreciate how really good it looks. :)
I received the flavor sampler I requested… The Dream Team (65 oz. (just over 4-lbs.) -- Eli’s has taken my suggestion and listed the weights of the products, once again demonstrating how well they listen to customer suggestions) which consists of three flavors:
Mud Pie: (4 slices) Coffee and dark chocolate cheesecake (in layers) with something chocolately and brownie-like in the center (their website doesn’t disclose what this is), topped with dark chocolate fudge and real whipped cream with a chocolate drizzle and pecan pieces. If you are a “mocha” fan, then is this the cheesecake for you! The cheesecake has a very distinctive coffee flavor without being overwhelming while the chocolate provides all the sinful pleasure of chocolate without loosing that quintessential cheesecake flavor. The crust is dark chocolate as well.
Triple Chocolate Truffle: (5 slices) If you love chocolate, then this is the cheesecake to buy. Dark chocolate cheesecake shot through with chocolate truffle pieces layered with chocolate mousse and a chocolate (almost like a crumb) topping with a chocolate drizzle and a dark chocolate crust. The only “issue” I had with this cheesecake was that the soft chocolate mousse doesn’t provide enough support when you are attempting to push your fork through the firm (but not hard) chocolate crumb layer on top, making the mousse spill out the sides somewhat. However, this isn’t a big problem and the mousse really adds a nice texture and flavor.
Perfectly Praline: (5 slices) This is probably my favorite of the three. Creamy caramel cheesecake is topped by a wonderfully buttery and nutty pecan topping that is itself generously drizzled with caramel. The nuts and the caramel provide a rich counterpoint to the wonderfully creamy cheesecake. I really appreciate the fact that the caramel isn’t overly sweet or chewy (it’s very smooth and buttery).
I really am impressed with how these flavored cheesecakes still managed to retain their inherent “cheecake-ness.” That is -- they still managed to taste like cheesecake and not be overwhelmed by the rich toppings. Most other flavored cheesecakes that I have had from other companies end up not tasting like cheesecake at all, so I consider this quite a feat. :)
Every slice is separated by paper which makes it really easy to serve.
The Final Word:
Clearly Eli’s is a company that cares. It might cost you a little more to get their cheesecake shipped to you, but I can honestly say it is worth it. Of course you can grab one the next time you’re in Chicago. :)
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Custom-made Cheesecake
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Epinions.com ID:
aricpedersen
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Member: Aric Pedersen
Location: New Jersey
Reviews written: 34
Trusted by: 15 members
About Me:
"He's just this guy. You know?" - Currently on sabatical
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