Valérie Jean-Bart Dallas Morning News He's ready to pull the plug on Val's Cheesecakes, his phone is ringing off the hook, and he says customers don't understand. Other business owners totally understand.
In a way, that's the point. Val's Cheesecakes is thriving, but Val isn't. He wants to keep the sweet traditions going, but he also needs time for himself. As he gives the business a fresh start, he wants people to understand that the cheesecakes aren't going away, but now he's going to provide the indulgence of self-care that Jean-Bart has provided Dallas people for so many years.
Jean-Bart's specific plan is to copyright his shop's logo and key recipes and sell the rights to a new owner who will take over Val's permanently. A buyer has not yet come forward, but Jean-Bart says the copyright acquisition is on track. Once the new owner starts baking, he will start a new shop called Val's Blue Label, which will not compete directly but will offer a “next level” cheesecake experience and extravagant decorations for private orders, parties and custom orders. The public will only be able to get their hands on Blue Label products one day a week.
But speaking outside Vals' Greenville Avenue storefront, it's clear that cheesecake isn't Jean-Bart's main focus these days. Morning News As the interview ends, the baker's phone continues to be inundated with messages from colleagues across the industry.
“There's a Maya Angelou quote: 'There is no greater suffering than carrying an untold story in your heart,'” he recites. “I want to help other people, business owners. I can show you a text from a business owner who reached out to me this morning, there are so many business owners who suffer in silence. There's so much they're going through. I want to help people talk about these things.”
In addition to Blue Label Cheesecake, Jean-Bart has begun consulting other companies, helping them solve problems with their products and avoid the pitfalls he fell into.
The service industry is built on employees wanting to serve all of us. But we don't always give back. Jean-Bart, like many others in the hospitality industry, has noticed customers' patience dwindling since the pandemic. He calls it “tolerance.” When the bakery reopened after a power outage in early June, one customer came in and was upset to find that a new cheesecake hadn't been baked after spoiled stock had been discarded.
Jean-Bart recalls, “I had people say to me, 'You're in the service business, you should be open seven days a week. Didn't you start a service business? What else do you want?'
Yes, he wants his life back. After 12 years running Val's on his own, Jean-Bart is ready to take the next step. The business began as a loving tribute to his late mother, who baked cheesecakes together every Sunday during her four years of treatment for terminal breast cancer.
But it's a lonely burden. “There's no one in Texas with my DNA,” Jean-Bart says. Business is good, sure, but he's ready to take some time off and change his work-life balance. “It's exhausting. If my mom were here, she'd say, 'It's time to get your own life.'”
For Jean-Bart, the cheesecake life slowly went from pleasure to work, but for different reasons. Hiring and staffing are harder these days, as good workers leave the service industry and others lack the work ethic. Workers can be paralyzed by social media and the fear of being left behind. Jean-Bart says he's heard workers lament seeing brunch Instagram reels and wishing they'd been there. But he understands. He's felt the same way. “I've done that. I'm here at Val's, I'm behind the counter, 'It's a fun Sunday! Let's go out!'”
Jean-Bart says his engineering background taught him how to bake bread but not the leadership skills needed for the food business. He regrets his years of leadership experience, calling it a “scar.” He also regrets remaining a renter because of requests for rent increases. “After 12 years, why can't I have my own store that's not subject to what some Texas landlord thinks? Texas is a landlord state.”
Texas is a state of landlords, and Dallas is a city of parking lots. Val's on Greenville Avenue is handicapped by a rule that requires two parking spaces if it wants to have tables or serve alcohol. It can't afford that space, and its neighbors refuse to share. The consequences are more far-reaching than not being able to sell red wine and cheesecake together. It also means Val's can't open during Greenville block parties and parades, where the booze flows freely.
“I can't be there on that one day where I make all my rent for the year,” Jean-Bart says of the block party. “Every business has a tent here except Val's. Losing revenue. Why can't Val put up a tent at the block party? Because he has two parking spaces.”
Dallas's ordinance creates an absurd contradiction: Serving alcohol requires encouraging driving, while accommodating pedestrians requires creating more parking spaces.
There are a lot of business owners who suffer in silence. There's a lot that they're going through. I want to help people talk about these things.
Valérie Jean-Bart
Another lesson: His identity has inadvertently led him to create a community and service style for his business that isn't necessarily what he wanted: Jean-Bart, a single man, has designed a menu that's perfect for a solo diner who wants to take home a slice of cheesecake, not so much for sharing or a community experience.
“It's like I've built a following like an only child who wants my cheesecake now,” he says. “It's like a culture that I've built for myself, and it's hurtful to me at the same time. I think running a solo business has created something that you can just grab and be like, 'I want it now.' If you look at our social media, it's like a one-man show, and customers tend to want it now. It leads to a sense of entitlement, a lack of tolerance and understanding.”
It's one of the “scars” he wants to show other business owners as an example of what not to do: Before investing in a new venue, many restaurateurs don't think about the community they'll be building through design, architecture, and menu choices. Or, if they do, they only think about the most basic things: how long they want customers to stay, or what interior design trends to follow.
Jean-Bart's example is worth setting, he said: “If I can influence one business owner to change their procedures, their operations, and not spend so much capital. The amounts of money some people are spending to expand their establishments are just astronomical.”
He's excited about the opportunity to turn his scars into lessons for future restaurateurs, and he says he's relieved to be so soon freed from the day-to-day grind. If all goes according to plan, Dallas' most beloved cheesecake will be here for years to come, and Val's will thrive, too.
author
Brian Reinhart
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Brian Rinehart became D Magazine's food critic in 2022 after writing about restaurants for the magazine for six years. Dallas Observer And that Dallas Morning News.
