U Can Haz Cheezecake

jleask — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 16:57:00 GMT

I haven't talked about many of my side projects here, and little by little I'll start showcasing them; but this one is one of the "closer-to-home" ones that I've done, plus someone kindly inspired me to talk about it, so here I am.

San Francisco Cheesequake is an artisinal cheesecake maker in San Francisco - and also my eldest brother. Peter has been baking for years and has found a niche in the cheesecake market with some of his recipes:

Baklava
Candycap Mushroom
Chanterelle Apricot Brandy
Chocolate Port Poached Pears
Masala Spiced Chaisquake

Yes, those are cheesecake names - and only a few of the over 25 different flavors he markets on his website. Seriously, they are amazing.

A little about the site

It's a simple template driven site using PHP and MySQL. The logo was designed by a local San Francisco artist and sent on to me to tie into a website, the site design was a simple inspiration from said logo.

There are database administration points for the Cheesecakes listing as well as the contact list (which can be filled out from the "Mailing List" or "Contact Us" forms) and the Professional & Personal testimonials with plans to include the Wine Pairings in an administrative database panel.

Overall I'm pretty happy with the site. It follows what I consider to be the important things in designing websites today:

Make your navigation intuitive
Make your content manageable
Keep your designs simple

In other words: it's all about the user experience. Far too often a great website goes to *** because a Project Manager can't control the client or the designer decides to get too crazy and give the client too many options - or worse yet, a programmer ignores designs and business rules and goes off on their own tangent. Thankfully I'm in a company right (shoutout to Telligent!) now where all of those things seem to be under good control.

Anyway, the point here is less about the site and more about pimping my brothers artisinal cheesecake business. Go check the site out, see if there are any flavors you like - and while overnight shipping a cheesecake isn't inexpensive, the cakes are WELL worth it (get them for company events and charge the company UPS/FedEx account!). You know these things sell for 7 or more bux A SLICE at restaurants around San Francisco??? Must be doing SOMETHING right!

By the way, tell him I sent you - I doubt he'll cut anything off the price, but if enough of you do he might send me free cheesecake!!!! (Peter, I have GOT to try that Masala Spiced Chaisquake ::hint hint::)

Digital Serenity : Showcase, Portfolio

U Can Haz Cheezecake