THIRTY DOLLARS for a fucking cheesecake?

The BBQ Pit
1

My wife nagged me and nagged me tonight until I gave in and traversed to our local Marie Callendar’s pie shop tonight for dessert. Our favorite is Lemon Cheesecake, which normally costs us $13.99 for a whole pie.

But I’m informed tonight that Marie Callendar’s is attempting to change their image. They recently closed down for 3 months while the restaurant was styled as a faux-southwest image, and renamed Marie Callendar’s Grille (with the stupid trailing “E” at the end). The new image means they no longer make their own cheesecake locally, but import it directly from New York, so they can call it “New York Cheesecake.”

I’m thinking this sounds rather good, when I’m informed that a cheesecake now costs $29.99. WTF? THIRTY FUCKING DOLLARS for a cheesecake? What did they do, stack the fuckers together and buy them a first class airline ticket to get here?

We ended up with a banana cream, by the way. Screw Marie Callendar’s, we’re moving anyway and the new town we’re living in has three excellent pie shops in it, so we won’t have to pay THIRTY FUCKING DOLLARS for a cheesecake!

2

No cheesecake is worth $30. In anyone’s currency.

3

Waitaminute. They’re restyling it as a Southwest type place, but importing the cheesecake from New York?

/Pace commercial
“Get a rope.”

4

Funny, I don’t think of pie as being a southwest food. Unless it is like, filled with beans or something. And cooked on a mesquite grill.

I can make a first-class cheesecake for less than three dollars using stuff at the grocery store. I think Marie Callendar’s even makes a box mix, although IMO cheesecake is one of those things that is really better from scratch, and I’m a box cook. They are not even that much work since you don’t have to cook them, just refrigerate them.

But yes, down with overpriced dessert items! For that price my cheesecake better have a golden pit.

5

Oh, come on. In Canadian dollars that’s what? Twelve bucks and change? :smiley:

6

You’ve led a sheltered life.

7

Then it’s unlikely you’d think these are a deal

The Cheescake Factory

Or this one

or these

Most decadent homemade cheesecake

8

Or even this one. :smiley:

9

That would depend on the size. If it were reasonably large I don’t think I’d baulk at paying $30.

10

Holy shit, if that is what homemade cheesecakes sell for on the market then I am quitting my job and making them for a living! People seriously buy $45 cakes? I bet one of mine tastes just as good as one of those since they’re made from scratch. The only problem is procuring a $45 cake for blind taste testing, since I am sure not going to shell out that much money for a control subject. Damn you basic laws of economics!

11

Why, it’s 1996, coming back for its jokes!

12

I don’t know what you’re making, but if you aren’t baking it in an oven, it ain’t a proper cheesecake.

13

Sorry there is definitely a big difference between “cream, cream cheese and graham crackers” that can be thrown together in five minutes, for under $3 - without an oven - and a true cheesecake. Yours might taste great, but good luck getting anyone to pay five bucks for them. People aren’t paying 30 bucks for a good cheesecake - a well made cheesecake is divine.

14

Agreed. And what kind of cream cheese are you getting for under three bucks, because I need to find it.

15

At my shop we charge $3.14159265 a slice for cheesecake…cuz its really more of a pie.

16

I doubt you’d want to :wink: One does not skimp on cream cheese!

17

Rico: Have you tried Trader Joe’s cheesecake?

18

Sorry, but a Junior’s Cheesecake is worth every penny of thirty dollars. It’s worth even more if it’s fucking cheesecake.

19

This is in Canadian funds:

I used to make cheesecakes back in my hometown, from scratch. They took a lot of time, money, and effort to make (for a baked good, anyway, it’s not as simple as making a batch of cookies!) They were large, and had a minimum of five packages of cream cheese in them. They were dense and luscious cakes, and I made any flavour requested. They often cost me roughly $18-25 to buy the ingredients to make them. (At the time, one package of store-brand cream cheese, on sale, cost about $3.29 - I notice it is much cheaper here in the US, thankfully.)

I never set a price, and in fact, began making them for fun - at the time I had a great paying job and all of two bills, so I was a big spender on whatever the hell I wanted. I love cooking and baking, so I made cheesecakes. I learned to make them with no cracks, they set perfectly, and tasted heavenly. I would bring them in for my co-workers’ birthdays, completely for free. Word got out, and people started paying me between $30-40 for each cake requested. I never set a price, I let them choose what they thought was fair. They always, always paid between $30-40, any more than that and I would refuse, because I thought that much was generous. It was a fair enough price, if you wanted to pay me for “labour”, but I loved baking so much that I didn’t care. I usually said how much it actually cost me to make, then they’d add what they thought I “deserved” for it.

I, myself, wouldn’t pay that much for cheesecake. I’ll make it myself for about $20. :wink:

Here in the US, though, I think I could pull it off for around $13-15, maybe, for a basic one. I haven’t tried it, this is just checking out the prices on the cheese, eggs, etc. Maybe.

20

My zebra chocolate cheesecake is worth every dollar in the ingredients I put in it. I bake it myself, and I don’t think I come out under $30 when I make it, unless I catch good sales.

Then again, I’ve had an orgasm from eating it. Literally.