Slices Fabulous Cakes marks 40 years as son continues mom’s tradition

Slices makes about 20 specialty cakes and 30-something cheesecakes.

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Dean Simakis has had a lot of jobs in his life. But bakery owner seems like the one thing he was destined to do since he was 6 years old.

That’s when he got a national radio show to announce the opening of his mother’s bakery, Slices Fabulous Cakes, in Cleveland’s Old Brooklyn neighborhood. The bakery is marking 40 years in business.

“We’re not sure exactly what day it opened,” he said. “We were big fans of an NPR show called ‘Kids America.’ I called in, and they announced it the day that it was open. We were so proud of her. I still remember it. It’s not like I was a pretty experienced phone call maker at that point.

Dean Simakis, son of Slices founder Efty.

“In the shoutouts at the end of the show, they would list all the people who called in with birthday wishes and that sort of thing, and they did a drum roll, and they said, and ‘Dean and Dimitri’s mom Efty opened her bakery today.’”

Slices Fabulous Cakes occupies a storefront on Pearl Road in the Old Brooklyn neighborhood of Cleveland.

Dean remembers those early years as “a magical time.”

That magic was started by his mother, Efty.

A baker – and bakery – are born

Efty came to the United States at age 4. She learned to bake from a family member. When she was 13, she started waitressing at a place in Cleveland’s Gordon Square neighborhood. A family friend taught her how to make cream puffs.

“I’ve always baked,” she said.

She started making pies out of the house. Two pies a day grew to about a dozen: Carrot cake, vanilla cheesecake, cream pies - chocolate, banana, coconut and lemon meringue. She did it all.

She started baking for the Glenn Restaurant, which her brother-in-law owned. It lasted 73 years until it closed in 1999.

At one point she found herself saying, “I can make this banana cream pie. I can make this even better, you know?”

Her sister Sophia helped her open the bakery on Memphis Avenue, but Efty incorporated Slices as sole owner in 1986 – a pivotal year, considering her mother died and she and her husband George, a lawyer, were raising two young kids. In 1992, she moved to the current location at 4190 Pearl Road. It’s tucked among a stretch of storefront businesses.

Forty years later, Efty doesn’t remember the exact inspiration for the name.

“I remember just thinking about it, and I don’t know, we came up with ‘Slices,’ and George added ‘Fabulous Pastries’ to it,” Efty said.

Dean weighed in with a precocious marketing slogan.

“I don’t know if I knew the word ‘tagline’ at the time, but I said, ‘You should say “Come to Slices, we have the best prices.” And my parents said, ‘Well, we’re not going to have the best prices, because we can’t afford to.’ ”

It was work. The kids went to private schools in Rocky River. Efty had to coordinate with family members about picking them up.

“Briefly, for a few years, my mom opened a restaurant at the same time. So she would go in the shop in the morning, finish all of her cakes, then go to the Halle Building, do the lunch shift, go back to the shop, do prep, then come home and make dinner for us.”

Efty baked, baked and baked. Dean grew up with a bit of wanderlust and headed west after majoring in drama at Kenyon College outside of Columbus.

Passing the torch from mother to son

In his life, Dean has written for AOL, driven for Uber, played internet poker, worked for a movie theater, freelanced for Rolling Stone and eyed a screenwriting career. About 12 years ago, he moved back to Northeast Ohio from California.

Timing was serendipitous. Efty stepped back about four years ago, and gradually Dean took over.

“I loved going in there,” Efty said. “I had a woman who came to work for me. She said, ‘I bet you come in here and think, “No, another cake.” ’ I never thought that. When I turned on the lights, it was like a theater, you know?”

What she didn’t like was being a taskmaster, and at one time she mulled selling the business.

“I had a woman who was stealing from me, and I was so worried that if I got rid of her, nobody would bake like her. And I found a girl off the street who I’d met. She’s amazing. Now it’s harder and harder to find line cooks and everybody. In the olden days, you would have servers who were professional waitresses, and they were in their 40s, 50s, and they took pride in it, and that’s gone.

“I love my customers; they got to know me like we were friends, and I’ve known them for years,” Efty said.

But Dean’s return came at the right time.

“I really moved back to Cleveland because she was looking to sell it, and I didn’t think I was going to get involved, but I was looking for something to do,” he said. “So I thought I’d better go back to Cleveland and keep an eye on what’s going on.”

Dean knew it was a tough business but reiterated his mother’s commitment and how ingrained Slices remains to the community.

“We never advertised. We didn’t even have a logo. We didn’t have a sign at the time. People didn’t know where we were. But that word of mouth really is amazing to me.”

While people can walk into Slices, it’s quickly apparent that’s not the bulk of the business. No tables, no decorations. More than 90% of Slices’ business is wholesale restaurants. The bakery has more than 100 restaurant clients.

Collecting customers and growing the business

If you have eaten dessert in any number of places in Greater Cleveland, there’s a chance you have had a slice of Slices.

Jigsaw Saloon, Corky and Lenny’s and Johnny’s on Fulton were early customers. They branched out to include Simon’s Restaurant & Deli in Brecksville, D’Agnese’s in Akron, Farmer Boy in Cuyahoga Falls, Tomato Grill in Hudson, Mavis Winkles Irish Pub in Twinsburg, Corleone’s in Parma and Masthead Brewing Co. in Cleveland.

Their distribution stretches west to Sandusky and east to Willoughby.

“We have a real wide range,” Dean said.

Efty remembers the first time she delivered a cake to a woman at Gallucci’s in Cleveland.

“We were trying different things, but she said, ‘What was that?’ So I just kept tweaking it until she said, ‘Now that’s a tiramisu.’ A nice compliment.”

The Browns and Guardians also are customers.

“They sell our cakes in the loges, mostly cheesecakes at Progressive Field, and we just added (the Browns) last season,” Dean said. “They were ordering between 80 and 120 cakes a game. To be honest, we still haven’t figured out how they go through so many cakes in a game.”

Carrot cake is Slices’ top seller, with chocolate mousse seeing a “huge boost” in recent years, he said. They also make Oreo Peanut Butter, a peanut butter cheesecake with chocolate glaze and Oreos on top.

In the past year they added Hyde Park Prime Steakhouse, and Efty credits her son with his foresight.

“I would have never done this,” she said. “They wanted us to use their recipes. And I said to Dean, ‘You’re nuts, you can’t do that.You cannot start a new recipe for just one restaurant.’ And I would not have done it. But it worked out – an eight-layer red velvet cake and six-layer carrot cake. That’s why he got a walk-in freezer. I mean, I had no brain for that. He has vision.”

Dean said Hyde Park’s booming business forced them to launch a second shift. They might have to expand those hours, he said. Slices also is about to introduce a pistachio cheesecake.

“I’m just trying to figure out what we’re going to cut back on so we have room for it in the coolers,” he said.

Efty half jokes, “It was a lot of hard work. Next time I would just jump in the lake.”

But looking back seriously, she said, “I’m proud of what I did. I had very high standards. There wasn’t another way to go. You used the best ingredients, you made everything from scratch, nothing was frozen. And if you abide by those rules, you can’t miss.”

That includes using expensive Kraft Philadelphia Cream Cheese even when companies have tried to woo Slices with free cases of their inexpensive products.

“I would try it, and it just never was the same,” Dean said.

They made it through Covid because many restaurants needed dessert for takeout. And Dean said while many diners could say no to dessert in a restaurant, it was an easier sale via takeout. Why not add on that slice of pumpkin cheesecake?

Slices has about 17 employees making about 20 specialty cakes and 30-something cheesecakes, he said – numbers that amaze Efty.

“I just marvel at him, I do,” she said. “I’m so glad I didn’t sell it.”

Efty might have been averse to expansion, but Dean has figured a way to make steady growth work.

“You know, my dad’s always getting on us to try and go into every new restaurant that opens up and try to get them as a customer. And it’s not a bad idea,” he said. “I only have so much bandwidth. But if you did successfully get 10 new restaurant customers, you’re probably going to have maybe one or two of them left after a year if you just go for all the new places.”

For now, with a cautious eye on the future and steady customer base, Dean is content with the Old Brooklyn family bakery.

“I’m trying to do a lot of different things. And when I came back here, I just thought it was going to be a quick trip, and that I would save the family business, and then go along my way. My mom would continue to work until she turned 100 and then we would let her retire, right?

“And I’m still happy,” he said. “Here we are.”