Plain Every Day Main photo courtesy of Junior’s Restaurant & Bakery
One morning in 1995, Alan Rosen, who owns Junior’s, the company that produces the iconic New York-style cheesecake, was driving to his Brooklyn restaurant when he heard on the radio that the home shopping channel QVC was hosting an event that day to find the country’s best products to sell on its network. Undeterred to discover that all appointments were already filled, Rosen wheedled his way into securing one. “You won’t be sorry,” he cheekily promised the woman on the phone.
Junior’s cheesecakes were ultimately one of 20 products chosen out of 4000. In Rosen’s first appearance on QVC, he sold 2400 cheesecakes in approximately four-and-a-half minutes. He’s on at least 15 times a year.
“Then we had to ship them,” recalls Rosen. “Me and the UPS guy and anyone else who we could get to help us. We’re using tape guns on eight-foot tables and finishing up the packages at five o’clock at night while the truck was waiting on Flatbush Avenue for us to run up the stairs and load the truck. We were a little caught with our pants down, so to speak. But we got it done.”
From Restaurant to Cheesecake Empire
Harry Rosen_Sign photo courtesy of Junior’s Restaurant & Bakery.jpg?format=1000w)
That spontaneous spirit and nimbleness have served Junior’s well since its inception in 1950. From a single restaurant, now its flagship, in Brooklyn, New York, founded by Rosen’s grandfather Harry, the company has grown into four separate businesses under the Junior’s umbrella: five restaurants and outposts, mail order, wholesale, and a fledgling licensing operation with ready to eat food and Junior’s merchandise.
When Rosen joined Junior’s in 1993, he wanted to continue to invigorate the family business, then run by his father and uncle. He’d always been taken with the restaurant business and fancied himself first and foremost a restaurateur, with belief and skills honed by his time at Cornell University’s prestigious hotel school. But he says he just wanted to “make something successful and do it well.”
He thought cheesecake, for which Junior’s was already well-known, would be a good jumping-off point. Creamy, rich, and mellow, with a base of sponge cake, not graham cracker crumbs, the recipe was crafted by Harry Rosen and baker Eigel Peterson 73 years ago. Rosen vows to never change it.
Rosen says they use only Philadelphia brand cream cheese (originally, Breakstone’s, which was the same formula he says, was used until it was purchased by Philadelphia) and a repetitive process that involves machine and hand mixing to create their luscious cakes. He refuses to switch brands though the cost of cream cheese now “has never been more expensive in the history of mankind,” he says. “I’ve always jokingly said to people, I’m not going to be the schmuck who messes this up.”
Innovating: Product, Business, & Marketing
Over the years, Junior’s has created varieties like pumpkin, red velvet, and pineapple at the behest of QVC and retailers, and understanding that people like variety. However, plain and strawberry remain the best sellers.
“The basic building block of everything we do is that New York-style cheesecake,” says Rosen. “We try and keep it simple because people sort of know what they want when they’re 10 feet away from the front door. I don’t want to go against that.”
Rosen first professionalized Junior’s rudimentary mail-order business, a natural next step since customers who moved from Brooklyn to Florida started calling to place orders. He became an early adopter of direct marketing in the food sphere, buying lists from the few food mail-order companies that were around back then to send direct mail pieces and a new product catalog. Then came QVC.
That exposure proved helpful in creating awareness. So did restaurants in commuter and tourist meccas with plenty of volume and foot traffic like New York City’s Times Square, and across from the New York Marriott Marquis hotel.
Lots of press and fun gimmicks like New York City mayors betting Junior’s cheesecakes for sports championships and P. Diddy sending kids across the Brooklyn Bridge to pick up cheesecakes have also helped firmly propel Junior’s to the firmament of New York City-cool culture.
Wholesale Key Lime photo courtesy of Junior’s Restaurant & Bakery
Rosen started getting calls from other restaurants and stores who wanted cheesecake. About six years ago, he bought and reconstructed a 103,000-square-foot bakery in southern New Jersey to wholly enter the wholesale business. It’s taken off over the past 12-18 months, with a presence in over 8000 stores across the country including Costco, Krogers, and Stop & Shop. Rosen hopes to be in 15,000 by 2024.
He’s also negotiating a lease in Las Vegas for his next restaurant.
Capitalizing on opportunities has proved a savvy strategy. “We’re not one of these companies that puts a bunch of numbers on a piece of paper and says, ‘that’s where we’re going’. We decide on doing something and we sort of go do it,” says Rosen.
He acknowledges the challenge to maintain quality and that family business feel while growing. “We use more of the same ovens,” he says, adding that because the cheesecakes are a handmade product, he’d consider automating processes, if necessary, only wherever it wouldn’t affect quality.
“We try and create uniqueness in everything we do,” explains Rosen. “For each one of our retailers, we deliver a special, special product. We are what we are, and we’re proud of it. We’re a family business and made it to the third generation. I’m gonna try not to screw it up, and maybe there’ll be a fourth generation coming along.”
Rosen’s just being modest. Junior’s sells 5 million cheesecakes a year and grosses over 100 million dollars annually. Rosen says he doesn’t care about that though, a bit weary from the high costs of food and surviving the pandemic with closed restaurants. “If money was the goal, then I would change cream cheese. Quality is the goal,” he says. “The exhaust of doing a good job hopefully should be that you make a living and grow a business.”
He appreciates Junior’s longevity, ticking off facts: making cheesecake going on 73 years, being in the same location in Brooklyn for 72 years, having employees for 20, 30, and 40 years, appearing on QVC for 27 years. “It’s pretty amazing that we’re still delivering on our promise of this great Brooklyn comfort food and great cheesecake from our family to yours.”
And we’re not bored of it,” declares Rosen. “We love it.”