Why This Cheesecake Shop Sells Out Before Closing Time | Tarek Hassanin - The Dirty Cheesecake

Staying Hungry is back with a story every restaurant owner needs to hear. This week, hosts Michael D'Onofrio and Vinny Pappalardo sit down with Tarek, founder of Made by Lily's and The Dirty Cheesecake, to unpack the journey from baking with his daughter at home to building one of Long Island's fastest-growing dessert brands. From a tiny Times Square storefront to sold-out nights in Smithtown and North Babylon, Tarek shares the real story behind entrepreneurship: surviving COVID, pivoting to cheesecake-on-a-stick, leveraging social media, building a loyal team, managing growth, and creating a brand customers can't stop talking about. If you're a restaurant owner, bakery operator, food entrepreneur, or anyone looking to scale a local business, this episode is packed with lessons on branding, customer experience, hiring, franchising, social media marketing, and perseverance. Timestamps: 00:00 – Entrepreneurship and stress: the ER story 01:05 – Meet Tarek from Made by Lily's & The Dirty Cheesecake 02:15 – Baking with his daughter and discovering a passion 05:20 – Leaving the limo business and taking a chance on Times Square 10:10 – Partner fallout and learning the bakery business alone 13:05 – COVID shuts everything down 15:45 – The cheesecake-on-a-stick pivot 18:50 – Scaling delivery through Uber Eats, DoorDash & Grubhub 23:30 – The exhaustion of building a business 29:15 – Closing Times Square and betting on Long Island 33:00 – The influencer marketing strategy that changed everything 37:40 – Opening Smithtown and selling out early 42:20 – The vision for The Dirty Cheesecake brand 46:10 – Building a team and company culture 53:15 – Expanding locations and future franchising plans 58:45 – Wholesale partnerships with restaurants and coffee shops 1:03:50 – Technology, delivery apps, and operational challenges 1:10:40 – Managing reviews and customer feedback 1:17:20 – From Egypt to New York: Tarek's immigrant journey 1:23:45 – Advice for aspiring entrepreneurs 1:29:30 – What's next for The Dirty Cheesecake? Guest & Sponsorship Inquiries - [email protected] New episodes dropping soon! Subscribe, Like and Leave us a Comment Below! ================================================================= SUBSCRIBE to this channel:    / @stayinghungrypodcast   FOLLOW US:   / stayinghungrypodcast   https://open.spotify.com/show/4cfz4H7... https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?...   / staying-hungry-podcast   Podcast by Viola Media: https://viola.media/ #stayinghungry #hospitalityindustry #restaurantbusiness