Founder’s legacy serves up a slice of heaven at a time
Dreams built Not Cho Cheesecake
BETHANY – Shoshianna Moore’s pursuit of her dreams was a force of nature and this town’s vintage downtown shopping hub has a sweet living legacy called Not Cho Cheesecake to prove it.
The 32-year-old Army combat veteran, mother of one and fiancee to Glen Whitaker launched her Not Cho Cheesecake business from home in the summer of 2019 and a storefront just months later.
When the COVID-19 pandemic came along, Moore’s foxhole mentality
helped her endure the setback and open in August 2020.
“We had a line all the way to the end of the block,” Whitaker recalled.
Only three months after whipping her dream into a bona fide bricks-andmortar business, Moore died of complications associated with liver failure.
Whitaker, who was set to wed Moore this August, continues her legacy by selling the cheesecake he says is really love.
“My wife, she was a people person. Her joy came from the satisfaction that people got from actually enjoying the cakes and the conversation that came with it,” he said. “She was a beautiful spirit inside and out.”
A march toward the Army
Trace Shoshianna Moore’s steps back in time, and it’s clear she was searching. Born in Dallas, she graduated from Douglass High School in 2007. Then she lived in Virginia for a while before returning to Oklahoma to attend Langston and pursue a business degree.
Ever restless, she followed a sibling’s lead and enlisted in the U.S. Army in the fall of 2010. Moore was married with a 1-year-old when she was deployed to Afghanistan as a supply sergeant in support of combat operations in 2016.
“She was a retired military vet, you know. They medically retired her. She
was a true soldier at heart through-andthrough, and if they hadn’t medically retired her, she still would have been in the military,” Whitaker said.
After forced retirement and the end of her marriage in 2018, Moore was staring down 2019 with more ideas than prospects to support her and her son, Zachariah. Nevertheless, she returned to Oklahoma City and among those she alerted was Whitaker, whom she’d met in a freshman business class at Langston.
“We’d been friends since we met in college,” he said. “It was crazy how she even came back here. She sent me a message one day that said ‘Hey, I’m moving to Oklahoma. You’re gonna marry me so get ready.’”
Black ownership inspires
Whitaker, who works in healthcare and gives poetry readings, remembers how Moore toiled when she first arrived.
“She had all these businesses going in her head,” he said. “I told her, Honey, decide on one and I will support you 100 percent.”
A getaway to Memphis with girlfriends took Moore to a Black-owned business specializing in cheesecake. Moore was blown away.
“She came back saying, ‘I want to do cheesecake!’” Whitaker said. “The kicker was she’d never made cheesecake before in her life.”
An accomplished cook, Moore’s signature determination and eye for detail went into overdrive and by the summer of 2019 she was producing cheesecakes good enough to sell out of her home. A social media blitz under the name Not Cho Cheesecake in September of that year created enough demand for them to seek a commercial kitchen.
They signed a lease for their home at 3933 N College Ave. in November 2019. Grand opening was set for March 2020.
Along comes a pandemic
While the pandemic was at first a curse on Moore’s plans, Whitaker said the size of the business, a dedicated staff and the nature of the product ultimately helped the fledgling business thrive. He also said it doesn’t hurt how well cheesecake photographs for social media, which happened to have a captive audience longing for just desserts under shelter in place orders.
Before swinging open the doors, Moore put her personal touch on every inch of the interior.
“We painted, decorated the walls and everything.” Whitaker said. “She literally put her whole, entire self into this place. What you guys are seeing is really a reflection of her spirit, and it’s also reflected in the cheesecakes.”
Love in the oven
“When you taste my wife’s cheesecake, I like to say you’re really tasting love,” Whitaker said to describe how Moore poured herself into Not Cho Cheesecake.
Part of that love, Whitaker said, was making everything from scratch, right down to the sauces. Match that with a variety of more than 30 flavors and it’s easy to understand why Moore’s tiny kitchen whips out about 200 cheesecakes daily.
Whitaker’s favorite specialty cake is the Big Mama, a fusion of peach cobbler and cheesecake that’s topped with whipped cream and a peach-cinnamon topping.
Flavors start with plain and advance to iterations that pay homage to classic pudding, cakes and pies plus favored indulgences like cookies and cream, peanut butter and chocolate and Tennessee Whiskey.
Cakes come in sizes Mini-Me (sample size), Me (cupcake size), We (for 2) and Us (full-size cakes in 6-, 8- and 10inch options). Grab-and-go hours are 3 to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and noon to 3 p.m. Saturday if you want to drop by. For full-size cakes, go to www.notchocheesecake.com.
Whitaker said he’s making plans to extend grab-and-go hours for summer, and an open new dining room.
“We’re gonna be opening up across the street soon to offer more of a cafe,” he said.
Once the new dining room is ready this summer, Whitaker said Not Cho Cheesecake could next target Tulsa, Dallas or your neighborhood.
“Whereever folks are hungry for cheesecake,” he said.