The walls inside Cheesecake Therapy speak volumes about Heather and Rosie Halldorson’s baking influences.
Sepia-toned photos of their grandmother’s decorate the main room of the bakery, and modern family photos fill the mantle above the fireplace. Cheesecake Therapy, a new dessert shop in Olde Town Arvada, is truly a family affair, the sisters explained. The store, 7401 Ralston Road, opens May 16.
“We grew up in a baking household. We spent Sundays in the kitchen with our mom and grandma, and Christmas was a cookie bakeoff,” said Rosie Halldorson.
Heather Halldorson, the owner, was always the go-to gal when a friend or family member needed a birthday cake in a pinch, and she always supplied the sweets for her son’s soccer team and class parties. It was a fun hobby, but Halldorson always dreamed of opening her own bakery and baking full time.
“Baking is just my way of telling my family I love them. Nothing says I love you like a big fresh cinnamon roll,” she said. “I wanted a place where you could gather with friends or have a cookie after school.”
Last year, she decided that the time was right to make that dream a reality. She quit her job as a middle school teacher, called her sister and told her the plan.
Rosie Halldorson didn’t miss a beat. The same afternoon, she also quit her job and called her sister back.
“I said, ‘I quit my job, so now you have to open it!’” she laughed.
The Halldorsons were nervous about discussing the plan with their father, a former business owner. Instead of disapproving, he gave them business advice and pitched in to remodel the building.
“He’s been here every day helping,” Rosie Halldorson said.
Starting with the family recipes Heather Halldorson learned as a child, she built Cheesecake Therapy’s menu by whipping up chocolate pie and plenty of cheesecake.
Cheesecake is Halldorson’s favorite, but cookies, pie and breakfast pastries will be just as plentiful. The shop will also take orders for birthdays or other special occasions.
Halldorson said she is lucky to be occupying the small house on Ralston Road. The sisters looked at properties in several neighborhoods before the house turned up for sale. She plans to participate in Olde Town’s festivals and events and hopes that Sunday morning traffic from St. Anne’s church across the street will draw a lingering crowd.
So far, traffic from Ralston Road has been good drive-by advertising. As the sisters surveyed the shop’s front yard one morning, a woman rolled down her window to say she couldn’t wait for the store to open.
“I’m a cheesecake freak!” she called as she drove away.
Cheesecake Therapy has a new deck for outside seating and a fireplace inside for when the unpredictable Colorado weather turns. Seating options were key, Halldorson said.
“I wanted a place where you could sit down, because how fun is it when you have to take your pastry with you, and then you end up sitting in your car?” she said.
NEED TO KNOW
Cheesecake Therapy, 740 Ralston Road, opens May 16. The store is open Tuesday and Wednesday 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., Thursday through Saturday 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. For more information, call 303-940-2530.