About Us

OUR STORY

808 Cheesecake (Island Creations LLC) was born in 2007 as a result of experimentation with lilikoi (passionfruit). My husband had tried a lilikoi milkshake at a 50's diner and liked it so much he wanted to duplicate it. We gathered as much lilikoi as we could and began experimenting. We had milkshakes for weeks, and I decided to add the passionfruit juice into something else. I started with a cookie recipe I felt would taste good with the lilikoi. Our family loved them! Their enthusiasm inspired me to continue experimenting! I made a lilikoi pound cake next. Everyone that tasted them said we would do very well selling them as not too many places make delicious Lilikoi items.

I was the manager for American Airlines at the time, so I didn't have time to do much baking. I continued to make the cookies and pound cake and casually sold them to whoever wanted to purchase them. Then one day in 2012, I had an idea for Lilikoi Cheesecake. I instantly knew it would be amazing with lilikoi added to it. After many attempts and adjustments to the recipe, I had created the most delicious LILIKOI MOUSSE CHEESECAKE! It is our most popular flavor to date. I knew it was really good when my husband nearly fell of his chair with excitement and raving how delicious it was after tasting it! (He had never liked cheesecake). I took them to work and several of my coworkers wanted to purchase them, so I started selling small 4" cheesecakes to my friends and family. Then, I started trying other flavors such as Kona Coffee. After trying several variations, I came up with the perfect Kona Coffee Cheesecake.

In 2013, I was encouraged to enter it into the Kona Coffee Dessert Competition and ended up winning a Silver medal for People's Choice and a Bronze medal for Chef's Choice! We went on to win more awards for our Cheesecakes, and for two years we were reigning Gold medalists for our Latte Cheesecake and our Kahlua Kona Coffee Cheesecake. At that time I was still working full time for United Airlines, but the demand for my cheesecakes were becoming greater and greater. It left me with little time for family, rest, or any type of social life. I knew with our creativity and entrepreneurial drive (not to mention the joy we get from watching our customers faces) what I needed to do. In May 2015, I decided to leave my full-time job at United Airlines to pursue our business full time.

Rob and I had built our business in one short year up to two farmer's market's per week plus special events. We also do catering, wholesale, and supply a few restaurants. We have been featured on KHON's "808 Living" television program for our Savory Ahi Poke Cheesecake, had several newspaper articles featuring our various cheesecakes, and won several awards! Our passion for what we do is what drives us to continue growing and creating!

We had been looking to expand into our own kitchen and retail space here in Hawaii, but with the high cost of real estate, it was slow to materialize. An opportunity had come up in my hometown of Roscoe, Illinois to lease a bakery fully equipped with everything we needed at a much lower cost. My daughter lives there and has the same passion for baking as I do, so we decided to go for it! In January 2017 we opened 808Cheesecake Roscoe! Our daughter Kelsi would be the head baker and operations manager.

In January 2018 we finally found the perfect home for 808CheesecakeHawaii! We moved into Kona Joe's Coffee Farm! We celebrated our Grand Opening on the exact day that our Illinois store was opened the year before! At Kona Joe's Coffee, we are able to sell from our kitchen through their Coffee Bar and Gift Shop. We now have a place where customers can come enjoy a cup of coffee and an Award Winning Cheesecake while admiring the breath-taking views from this beautiful place!

In November of 2018 we were put into a location in Downtown Janesville for a Holiday Pop-Up event. It happened to be the old Edible Arrangements location. We looked around and couldn’t believe how perfect this would be for our next location as it was much bigger than our bakery in Roscoe (which in 2 short years we had already ourgrown).

We immediately were in touch with the building owner and began talks of leasing or purchasing the building. In July of 2019, the building was purchased, and we began our plan for 808Cheesecake Janesville! After lots of construction and delays we were finally able to begin business in November 2019.

After much deliberation and forecasting, we decided it would be in our best interest to close our Roscoe location. This was a very difficult decision as Roscoe is my hometown and the beginning of 808Cheesecake mainland.

Our Janesville Wisconsin location will allow us to grow and offer several new services. We are currently working on shipping our Cheesecakes and hope to have that ready by early 2021. We already offer Catering and Wholesale options as well at our retail lobby at 119 W Milwaukee St Downtown Janesville. We participate in local Farmers Markets and Special Events.

Stay tuned via Socal Media as we have even more exciting plans in 2021.

Mahalo to everyone who has supported and believed in us! This is all possible because of our amazing family, friends and customers!

MAHALO (Thank-you)
Lori & Robinson Reyes
Owners

Kelsi Getty
Operations Manager/Head Baker

Our business is dedicated to my beloved Mom (Charlene Fisher) who loved cooking and baking for her family! Her favorite place to be was on a Black Sand Beach in Hawaii surrounded by Sea Turtles!