Sweet Independence: Grandma’s Cheesecake Sandwiches gave this entrepreneur an escape from workplace harassment
Lisa Cotoggio sidesteps boxes stacked three feet high. They contain packing labels, a cellophane sealer, bubble wrap, branded plastic bags, “Keep Frozen” labels, posters, plastic containers, folded cardboard boxes and boxes filled with smaller branded boxes. They’re on top of and below her desk, and by the sofa separating the office from her bedroom that opens up to a panoramic view of Queens. From her Bayside apartment, you can see the Throgs Neck Bridge soaring above the East River in the distance. It’s the perfect backdrop for the College Point–raised, Flushing High School– graduated Grandma’s Cheesecake Sandwiches founder.
At the center of the commotion is Cotoggio’s invention: a cheesecake sandwich based on her Grandma Raphaella’s recipe. Each one has frothy, super-whipped cheesecake wedged between two cookies your teeth can sink through without the tangy filling gushing out. The star ingredient distinguishing Cotoggio’s cheesecake from the thicker, denser standard is Kraft Philadelphia Cream Cheese.
Like the rest of the organized mess piled high in Cotoggio’s home office, her cheesecake sandwich business is a culmination of hard lessons and new solutions.
Through the 1980s, Lisa Cotoggio pursued a modeling career in Paris and Milan and, later, acting in New York City and Los Angeles. She was forced to confront egregious workplace harassment early on. While being considered for a movie role, Cotoggio once overheard a film producer ask if she would give “good head” in exchange for the part.
Cotoggio eventually stepped into the hospitality industry, working in restaurants, nightclubs and hotels for 30 years. “I was getting groped repeatedly,” she says. In 1985, a Manhattan restaurant employer fired her after she refused his sexual advances. She sued her former boss, and won.
In 2013, she changed careers again, with a job in auto sales, but encountered still more harassment. After a co-worker groped her, she pressed charges against the Long Island–based Mercedes Benz dealership and gave her notice in October 2016. The lawsuit is ongoing, but that incident was the last straw. Cotoggio decided to become her own boss.
“So [Grandma’s Cheesecake Sandwiches] all came about because of the sexual harassment,” Cotoggio states. “I needed to make my own money. And I was trying to come up with something, and I kept coming back to my grandmother’s cheesecake recipe.”
Since starting the business in January 2018, she’s put $22,000 of her savings into it. The product has gone through several iterations: a full, round cheesecake, then cheesecake slices. Then in May, after digesting feedback from 200 taste testers, including friends, bakers, grocery shop owners and even firefighters at a nearby firehouse, “I landed the cheesecake sandwich,” she says.
“It’s grab-and-go. You could eat it in your hand. You pop it out. You hold it in between your two fingers, and you eat it like an ice cream sandwich. Only it’s cheesecake. And no one’s ever done this before.”
Cotoggio’s cheesecake sandwiches come in plain, milk chocolate and chocolate chip flavors, and are sold at five local stores and on her website. When she’s not baking her cheesecake sandwiches, she’s managing everything including social media, insurance policies, trademark laws, website maintenance, thaw-proof shipping, smush-proof packaging and store deliveries.
“I’d like this to be national in two to three years,” she says. On her growth plan, she explains, “I want to hire more women. Look, I know I have to hire some men. And I have nothing against men. Because I know a lot of men that are great. But I just I want to make a safe space for women.”
For Lisa Cotoggio, revenge is a sweet cheesecake sandwich best served cold.
Grandma’s Cheesecake Sandwiches | @grandmascheesecakessandwiches
