News

CA's Cheesecakes opens on Main Street

Bill Moss/Henderesonville Lightning Carol-Ann Bagnulo shows a cheesecake slice at her new cheesecake bakery on Main Street.

By Bill Moss, Published: June 17, 2015

When Carol-Ann Bagnulo first tasted a chocolate Kahlua cheesecake, she just had to get the recipe and make one herself. Her version was as good as the original — maybe better.

“I started making them about 15 years ago,” she said. “I started giving them to people and they said, ‘These are so good. You should sell these.’”
And so it came to pass.
After months of planning, Bagnulo opened CA’s Cheesecakes at 432 N. Main St. beside the Dugout restaurant. The landlord cooperated in helping her renovate the narrow but deep space, adding new floors and walls, a new heat and air conditioning system and an all-important commercial kitchen for baking.
Among the flavors the shop will offer are plain chocolate, turtle cheesecake, raspberry swirl, lemon blueberry, key lime, chocolate-vanilla swirl and peppermint. Cupcake sized mini-cheesecakes will sell for $2. A slice of cheesecake costs $3.95 and a whole cheesecake will run $40 to $45 depending on the flavor. And one more specialty that may have people lining up this summer — frozen cheesecake — plain, chocolate, raspberry or peppermint — dipped in Van’s chocolate (light or dark).
Through a neighbor, she already is expecting one custom order.
“We’ve got a bride coming in to talk about doing a cheesecake for her wedding,” she said.
Because she has a full-time job as a nursing supervisor for an insurance company, Bagnulo has hired her daughter, Janette Adriano, as the fulltime manager. Bagnulo’s husband, Richard, helps out, too. He offered a helpful sales pitch: “There’s no calories in cheesecake.”
To which Bagnulo appended, “As long as you don’t eat it.”
The shop offers carryout only. The website, cacheesecakes.com, is a work in progress at the moment but Bagnulo says when it’s up people can check it for specials. The bakery is open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week.