Say… Cheesecake!

Take one part cook, one part waiter, and one part showman. Add a healthy dash of personality. Shake well and… voila! You have Bruce's Fabulous Foods, in Marion, NC.

Bruce Brown, the owner, head chef and some would say star, of Bruce's Fabulous Foods, creates and sells more than 70 different kinds of cheesecake. No, you heard right. 70 kinds of cheesecake, all created and served from his small, unassuming kitchen one flight down off of Marion's South Main Street, below Bruce's small but cozy main dining room. It is there that Bruce holds court, planing each day's menu for his restaurant, planning his catering projects, experimenting with new cheesecake flavors and greeting regular patrons and strangers alike with big, hearty hugs.

"You can do anything with cheesecake," Bruce enthused. And he has.
Need proof? Try his Pink Bubble Gum cheesecake. Or Cinema Sin, which contains Bruce's favorite snacks when he goes to the movies — peanuts, chocolate covered raisins, Nestle's Crunch bars and Reese's Pieces. Or Funky Monkey (banana cheesecake with chocolate chips and walnuts). Still not different enough for you? Then try a hunk-hunka Elvis, which contains chocolate chip cookies crust with a layer of peanut butter and banana cheesecake with peanut and chocolate streusel.

"You can never tell what's going to happen!" Bruce exclaimed.

Bruce's love affair with cheesecake began in his hometown of Elyria, Ohio. He worked his way through college in restaurants while pursuing his dream of being a sportscaster. Instead, the owners of the restaurant talked Bruce into going to culinary school so he could go into restaurant management. So Bruce learned to express his personality through the kitchen rather than the broadcast booth. Ironically, he now makes regular appearances in cooking segments on WLOS-TV in Asheville, so his career in cooking has made him the broadcast personality he always wanted to be.

He moved to Marion 11 years ago, following his wife's parents, who were originally from Avery County and moved from Ohio to Marion following their retirement. Once in Marion, Bruce worked an inside sales job, at a cotton mill and 4 1/2 year's as the manager of a popular Marion fine-dining restaurant named Josephine's before opening Bruce's Fabulous Foods in September, 2001. "The week after 9/11," Bruce added.

Since that time, Bruce's business has taken off. His restaurant is open for dine-in and take-out at lunch and dinner for groups by appointment. He and his assistant Robin ("Right-Hand Robin," Bruce calls her) also run a flourishing catering business. But cheesecakes remain Bruce's true signature item.

His crusts are made of ground cookies, rather than traditional crusts. " Oreos, ginger snaps, vanilla wafers — whatever I can get my hands on cheap," Bruce said.

His most popular cheesecakes are a "tossup between Pumpkin, especially around Thanksgiving, or Key Lime," Bruce explained. "I bake a key lime cheesecake, let it cool, make a key lime pie filling, put the filling on top of the cheesecake and bake it again, to make it a two-layer Key Lime cheesecake." He makes a lemon version of the key lime cheesecake, called a Lemon Supreme. His Pecan Praline cheesecake is also quite popular.

Bruce's personal favorite is his Peanut Butter and Jelly cheesecake. Strangely enough, his wife likes nothing but traditional New-York style cheesecake.

He is currently experimenting with a garlic cheesecake, a special request from one of his customers. It's not as strange as it sounds — at least when Bruce explains it. "Garlic, when you roast it comes out nutty… and it's not heavy on the breath" Bruce elaborated. " I'm working on that right now." He also recently won a recipe contest in Lenoir with a savory Mediterranean cheesecake, made with cream cheese, feta cheese, artichoke hearts, red bell peppers, black olives and fresh rosemary. Based on that success, he now serves Italian, Greek and Mexican versions of the savory Mediterranean cheesecake.

In addition to the Lenoir recipe contest, Bruce was voted "Best Cook and Waiter in McDowell County" by the readers of The McDowell News in 2000. But to Bruce, the greatest accolade of all is this: "You know you're doing something right when you have 3- and 4-year-olds asking to come to Bruce's rather than McDonald's," Bruce said, laughing. Could anyone ask for greater praise than that?

For more information, please call Bruce Brown at Bruce Brown at (828) 659-8023 or visit Bruce’s Fabulous Foods located at 107 South Main Street in Marion, NC.

by Burt Dellinger