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Manny's Cheesecake owners will rebuild in same location

By JOLEEN FERRIS

Story Created: Sep 2, 2011 at 5:49 PM EDT

Story Updated: Sep 2, 2011 at 6:18 PM EDT

UTICA, N.Y. (WKTV) - The owner of a landmark local bakery destroyed recently by an early-morning fire says the outpouring of support and feedback from the people who loved his product made him realize there is only one place to rebuild: the same place Manny's Cheesecake Bakery has sat for the past 42 years, at the corner of Oneida and Pleasant Streets in Utica.

"This is where it's going to be. When, I can't tell you," says owner Richard Alpert, who adds that a lack of insurance means it will take him longer than he'd like to rebuild.

Alpert says he plans to meet with city leaders and with U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, to see what grants or other incentives might be available to help him rebuild.

"We're not going down this way. We're not going to let fire end our career. We're going to end it the way we want to end it and it's not going to end this way. It's going to end the right way," says Alpert.

Alpert says his daughter, Tiffany, will oversee and orchestrate the rebuilding. Nineteen-year-old Tiffany Alpert grew up in the bakery.

"People know Manny's Cheesecake as this corner so if they saw it somewhere else it would be different to them. It's the same cheesecake, but the meaning of this corner is Manny's Cheesecake," says the younger Alpert.

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