31 December 2023
Muddy Paws Cheesecake, a fixture in St. Louis Park for the past 30 years, put out a plea for help after it closed this week, saying without nearly a quarter of a million dollars in donations, it would shutter its doors forever.
Marcus Lemonis, television personality and philanthropist, bought $40,000 worth of pies from St. Louis Park’s Muddy Paws Cheesecake to help keep the business afloat. (Photo by Dan Steinberg/Invision/AP, File)
Marcus Lemonis, a television personality and philanthropist, stepped in this weekend and offered to buy $40,000 worth of pies if the bakery agreed to give them away on Instagram.
Best known for scooping up sinking small businesses on the CNBC show “The Profit,” Lemonis clarified on Instagram that his help was to keep the business going while also bringing attention to needed improvements in the bakery’s business practices:
“The purpose of the process is to keep the business alive,” he commented on the bakery’s announcement about the giveaway on Instagram. “To install better practices, financial discipline, improved process etc., this is not a holiday giveaway !!! This is a reply to a request for help to save this business. Understanding how we got here financially is also key.”
The bakery, which closed this week, said it would have to shutter its doors permanently unless it could pay down significant debts within the next couple weeks.
If Muddy Paws is able to get back up and running, owner Tami Cabrera plans to overhaul key parts of the bakery’s operations, she said in the announcement.
Founded by Cabrera in the early 1990s, the cheesecake bakery once had storefronts on Snelling Avenue in St. Paul, in Maple Grove and Uptown Minneapolis before transitioning to its St. Louis Park flagship in the mid-2000s.
Muddy Paws has made more than 480,000 cheesecakes over the past three decades, including on the Food Network, at the White House and for TV host Al Roker, according to the company’s website. The business has also donated cheesecake, money and volunteer hours to a variety of local nonprofits, theater organizations and community support networks. Cabrera does not take a salary from running the business, she said on the website, and has occasionally had to work other jobs to support her family.
In an extensive post on the bakery’s website, Cabrera outlined the “snowball” of how the bakery ended up in nearly a half-million dollars of debt: A devastating burglary in 2018, after which the business underwent a pricier-than-expected move to another building nearby — which a car crashed into a year later. Then the pandemic began. Muddy Paws also spent a considerable sum opening an artisan market in the West End area of St. Louis Park. Cabrera encountered significant challenges in her personal life and she said the cost of ingredients has skyrocketed.
All told, Cabrera wrote, the business needs to raise $240,000 — enough to cover about half its total debt load — by Jan. 19, 2024.
“For 30 years, Muddy Paws Cheesecake has given to local charities — hundreds of them — and now it’s time that we need help,” Cabrera said in a video posted on the website. “We are at a place where we are at too much debt to continue, and we need your help.”
Cabrera could not immediately be reached for comment Sunday.
Donations information is at muddypawscheesecake.com/save-muddy-paws.
Pioneer Press reporter Jared Kaufman contributed to this report.
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