Paradise By the Dashboard Light

Rolling Through Cheesecake Heaven

by Warren Rojas

Photo: Kate Bohler

She may not yet be as well known as the ubiquitous dessert “factory” that dots the national landscape, but baking maven Lisa Eckels does seem to know a thing or two about cheesecake.
Eckels says she developed her core dessert recipes over a decade ago, testing the market for her handiwork at the restaurant she opened shortly thereafter. She took a break from the hospitality game for a while, but wandered back in to the fray last July with the launch of the driver’s side window-accessible Cheesecake Heaven.
The tiny store houses about a dozen different flavors (peanut butter, coconut cream, chocolate mousse) at any given time, with seasonal specials—carrot cake comes online in September; pumpkin cheesecake is on tap for the fall—cycling in and out. Eckels touts the Plain Jane (traditional NY-style) and white chocolate raspberry iterations as solid performers.
We are partial to the key lime—Eckels original first monthly special cum all-time best seller—a sensuous mix of citrus-spiked cream cheese and buttery, crumbled shortbread cookies.

Cheesecake Heaven: 5125 Lee Highway, New Baltimore; 540-341-4114. To learn more about Eckels’ drive-thru cake shop, visit: www.facebook.com/WarrentonCheesecake

(September 2011)