Meet Your Neighbor

Cheesecake Cheesecake Man Man FAMILY BUSINESS SATISFIES SACRAMENTO’S SWEET TOOTH

Lambert Davis Photo by Linda Smolek

As CEO of To The Bay and Back Gourmet Cheesecakes, Lambert Davis sleeps and breathes cheesecake. He eats his product too, but only “in moderation.”

“Lemon is my favorite,” Davis says. “You have to taste it to believe it.”

For more than 20 years, Davis has headed up one of Sacramento’s tastiest enterprises, a family-owned company with more than 70 cheesecake fl avors. The name comes from Bodega Bay, the family’s favorite vacation site.

Everything is based on his mother’s cheesecake recipe.

“Mom was a great cook but she didn’t make cheesecake a lot. When she did, it was a special occasion,” says Davis, who grew up in Del Paso Heights and still owns a home there. “It’s a specialty dessert that’s hard to make. You have to know what you’re doing.”

The fi rst time family members knew they had a hit was in 1991 when they brought their cheesecake to San Francisco Symphony’s Black and White Ball. The dessert earned “rave responses.” Davis realized a new business might be brewing.

JL JL

By Jessica Laskey Meet Your Neighbor

Donald Kendrick Music Director D ldK dik HOME for the HOLIDAYS

Sat, December 10 at 2:00 pm

Sacramento Memorial Auditorium

SALVATORE ATTI TENOR

GET YOURTICKETSEARLY! Annual Sacramento Holiday Tradition with full orchestra, candlelit procession and audience sing-along.

BOX OFFICE 916.808.5181 or TICKETMASTER.COM

PUPPETS

provided by Green Valley Theatre Company Christopher Cook, Designer

BACK from 2019!

MESSIAH

SING -ALONG

Mon, December 26 at 2:00 pm First United Methodist Church 2100 J Street, Sacramento Ryan Enright, Organist

TICKETS: $20 Seniors/Students $15 SACRAMENTOCHORAL.org | online – or at the door

Over the years, family members built on the recipe. After fi nishing a career in construction in the Bay Area, Davis learned how to bake the signature dessert. In 1999, To The Bay and Back signed a contract with its fi rst manufacturer.

“Having a manufacturer means they do the heavy lifting,” Davis says.

The process is called co-packing. A third-party food manufacturer agrees to produce a product according to the recipe and requirements of a food business. “We’ve had three different manufacturers over the years and have become very astute to get out a lot of cheesecakes,” Davis says.

Clients such as United Grocers, UC Davis and Sacramento State rely on To The Bay and Back for a consistently excellent product in fl avors that include lemon, New York style, goji berry and strawberry swirl. Seasonal favorites are pecan, pumpkin swirl and virgin piña colada.

Davis is proud that his company is state and federally certifi ed, a rigorous process that guarantees quality.

Like most successful family businesses, Davis received support over the years. Help came from names big and obscure.

He credits grocery chain Smart & Final for staying open during the pandemic, which provided access to raw ingredients. Davis mentions Al Wilson, who leased Davis his fi rst commercial kitchen and “took a chance on us when we were green.”

There’s a woman identifi ed only as Ms. Gloria, a “wonderful human being who helped us with money to keep us alive over the years.” There’s Grammy Award winner Jay King, founder of music group Club Nouveau. Local Ethiopian eatery Queen Sheba is a “big supporter.” Also helping was Golden Pacifi c Bank and its president Virginia Varela.

The success is a testament to the power of help from family and friends and Davis’ entrepreneurial vision. “I always said I would own a business,” he says. “I just didn’t know it was going to be cheesecake.”

For information or to place an order, visit tothebayandbackcheesecake.com.

Jessica Laskey can be reached at jessrlaskey@gmail.com. Previous profi les can be found and shared at InsideSacramento.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @insidesacramento. n

ACROSS

1 Civilization in the Passover story 6 Grand ___ (tennis feat) 10 PC brand 14 Zipper component 15 Caesar’s attire 16 Stuffing herb 17 You may play with it at a casino (In this answer, note the first 2 letters + the last 3) 19 Urge to act 20 ___ B. Wells (civil rights pioneer) 21 Texter’s exclamation 22 Actress Holly

Robinson ___ 23 First parts of

CPR? (first 2 letters + last 4) 28 “Trusty” mount 29 Consume 30 Stretch the truth 31 Rep. of

N.Y.’s 14th district 33 Marching insect 34 Tends to spilled milk 35 Certain wasps, or the words that wrap around 17-, 23-, 48- and 57-Across? 39 “My bad” 40 “I’ve got it!” 41 “___ be better off ...” 42 Public transit option 43 Colorado native 44 Currency that anagrams to

“liras” 48 Be constantly annoying (first 2 letters + last 3) 53 “Eternals” director Zhao 54 Missions, briefly 55 Answering machine’s beep, e.g. 56 Sci-fi saucers 57 “Sounds rough” (first 4 letters + last 3) 61 Smallest of the litter 62 Tennis legend Arthur 63 Tony winner ___ Elise

Goldsberry 64 “Frozen” character who can control ice 65 Settled a debt 66 Tough jumps in skating

DOWN

1 Moral principles 2 Skilled in 3 “I know ___, but what am I?” 4 Score units:

Abbr. 5 Not just any 6 Crush grapes, say 7 Sound of music? 8 Grow older 9 Month with the shortest name 10 Colorado ski resort 11 Feel great concern 12 Vain

“voyages” 13 Aptly named flights 18 Cow’s call 22 Cookware item 24 Nice bargains 25 False deity 26 “The Chi” creator

Waithe 27 Fire starter, at times 32 Raccoon relative 33 2020 WNBA

MVP Wilson 34 Field doctor 35 Fresh-faced 36 Deltas’ followers 37 Question of time 38 Warriors coach found in “locker rooms” 39 Relatively unknown 43 Hawaiian instrument, briefly 45 Relatively unknown 46 Winner’s wreath 47 Stockholm residents 49 ___ Rica 50 Mario’s dinosaur sidekick 51 Chose 52 Computer port initials 57 Flight tracker backdrop 58 Mex. neighbor 59 Notable time 60 Curse

5/5

PREVIOUS PUZZLE ANSWER

5/4

© 2022 Andrews McMeel Universal www.upuzzles.com

Buzzwords by Rebecca Goldstein