Moncton Maker of Cheesecake Bites Announces Plans For Sackville Retail Shop
SACKVILLE – A Moncton welder’s side-hustle making cheesecake bites has grown to the point that it’s getting a storefront in downtown Sackville.
Marcuisse Thompson, the founder and owner of Cheesecake Garage, said he plans to do business out of an old garage in Sackville.
Cheesecake Garage is aptly named – not only for its physical location – but as a nod to Thompson’s other passions.
“Cheesecake is my number-one favourite dessert ever, and the ‘garage’ stems from the fact that my friends and I are usually in a garage building cars, motorbikes and various other metal fabrication projects,” he explained.
Thompson noted he spends a lot of time in the garage, as a welder-fabricator by trade, and working on his pet project, a 1991 Daihatsu Hijet truck.
“It was an opportunity that came up at this point. I really couldn’t pass it up, because it’s outfitted for what I want to do,” Thompson said.
“Also, my mom lives in Sackville, so that’s another reason. I gives me help to do what I need to do in that space.”
In a call with Huddle, Thompson said he doesn’t have a specific opening day nailed down. Because his full-time job and the work he’s undertaking to build his own house are taking up so much of his time, the Cheesecake Garage’s timeline is uncertain.
“I don’t have an exact date, but I’m pushing for early this summer,” he said.
Thompson plans to hire one or two staff members when he opens the Cheesecake Garage.
While he doesn’t have any formal training in baking, Thompson says it comes naturally, with a father who worked as a chef and a mother who is a talented cook.
“I always had figures around who cooked and they were always in the kitchen and stuff like that. I would say I get it a bit naturally,” he said.
Thompson started informally, making cheesecake bites in a few different flavours, for family and friends on the side, before starting a proper side-hustle in October 2020.
“In my first week, just to friends, I sold 200 cheesecake bikes, which I thought was a lot until it turned out on my first Christmas (in business) I sold a little over 4,000 of them,” Thompson said.
Cheesecake Garage’s main product is its variety of cheesecake bites. Thompson also does chocolate-dipped pretzels, and, occasionally, full-scale cheesecakes for events.
“I preferred to do the cheesecake bites because I didn’t have the space (working from home) to store big cheesecakes and stuff.”
That will change in the approximately 750-square-foot home Cheesecake Garage will occupy at 62 Main St.
RELATED: ‘Sinful’ Cheesecake Store to Open In Moncton
Thompson announced his plans not long after the owners of The Devil’s Halo made public their plans to open a permanent footprint for their erstwhile home-based cheesecake shop around this coming Easter weekend.
He said he’s not concerned with the competition, since he sees each business as having a different niche. While he specializes in cheesecake, Thompson said the Devil’s Halo, for example, “provides a different and more unique product than I do, and it sets us apart in that way.”
Thompson noted that while opening a storefront in Sackville, that doesn’t mean he won’t be active in Moncton.
“I do have plans in the works to sell my cheesecake and other products as I do at a lot of pop-up events – but I can’t give too many details on that yet.”
Sam Macdonald is a Huddle reporter in Moncton. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].