Manuel Alvarez describes himself as a persistent sort, who once putting his mind to something is not easily deterred. 

Those personal attributes were put to the test when Alvarez took on the challenge of being a baker of detail-heavy Japanese cotton cheesecakes. With the help of his wife Nadia Escalante, Alvarez would “start a business out of nowhere.”

Rio Grande Valley communities are dotted with pan dulce shops and long-standing custom cake bakeries. In this mix, there is nothing quite like The Sweet Blvd, which makes and sells only one product. Pastel Japones is how the Brownsville-based bakery describes what it offers. The fluffy sponge-looking cake has the rich custard elements of American cheesecakes with the addition of cream cheese. 

To see one, yellow all around with sugar sprinkled atop to make for a snowy covering, is to imagine what a perfect dessert might taste like if you could find one. Getting to that finished product is no easy feat. Alvarez described how each Japanese cheesecake takes two hours to bake and requires four temperature changes during the process. Its complexities extend to the ingredients. There are 12 of them and the measurements of each must be exact. 

“If you miss by three grams, you notice it,” Alvarez said. “It’s like a chemistry class.”

An Exact Specialty

The challenges of making the Japanese version of the Western-style cheesecakes may explain why there were so few of them to be found at Valley bakeries. Alvarez and his wife checked around in 2019 to see if the Japanese pastry they were learning to make was available at area bakeries.

“We tried it, but it’s too difficult and it takes too long to bake,” he recalled being told by the few Valley bakers who had even tried making Japanese cheesecakes. 

Baking in quantities is a business necessity for many Valley panaderias offering empanadas and conchas. There was no time to focus on the delicious but troublesome Japanese cheesecake. By then, Alvarez was progressing in his understanding of making a dessert delicacy from East Asia. The early reviews and feedback from family and friends was positive. Alvarez figured that maybe he was on to something.

“I told my wife, ‘No one else is making it, so why not us?'” he said. 

It was time to start the business out of nowhere.

Finding A Following

First there would be the deliveries, meeting customers in large parking lots in Harlingen, Pharr and McAllen. 

There were weekly trips to Harlingen and Pharr, with frequent stops in McAllen as well. Their existing sales in Brownsville served as the home base. 

“When are you delivering again to Pharr?” asked one customer, Belinda Pruneda, on Facebook. 

She wasn’t the only one asking. The Sweet Blvd, with no storefront at the time, built up a social media presence based on word of mouth and positive customer reviews. The volume of likes and followers on Facebook was building, going over the 10,000 mark in a few months. The Sweet Blvd was also connecting with hundreds of customers on Instagram. Pictures of Japanese cheesecakes are eye candy. The positive reviews to go with the images of the cakes made by Alvarez and Escalante were more than enough to stir curiosity and the desire to try one. 

“Did you get one already?” asked Adriana Arreola to a friend on The Sweet Blvd’s Facebook page.

In Valley Spanglish fashion, Alondra Perez responded, “No siempre que me acuerdo, ya estan sold out!”

The Brownsville couple steadily picked up production of their cheesecakes so customers like Perez could find one even if they forgot to ask for one. They began selling 150 cakes a week and in one holiday period sold 200 cakes in two days. Their at-home Brownsville bakery kicked into overdrive and they eventually realized more space was needed to grow their business. Searching for a Brownsville storefront location, they were turned down at one shopping plaza because its managers didn’t want to lease to a business making only one product.

“We were like, ‘Do you realize there are a lot of people who want what we sell?'” Escalante recalled asking.

Baking Texas Style 1

Hardly deterred, the couple would find a good location on Boca Chica Boulevard, just east of Expressway 77/83 and along one of Brownsville’s busier traffic corridors.

At their new storefront, Alvarez and Escalante recently took a little time to rest and reflect how fast they’ve grown a business started out of curiosity, with only a guess how a heavily Hispanic market would take to a dessert with Far East origins. 

“We never thought it’d go this well,” Escalante said. “We’re the specialists.”

Alvarez smiled at his wife’s description before going into a mini-history of how the Japanese took a European version of the cheesecake and put their own spin on it during the 1960s. He went on to describe the Spanish version of cheesecakes and how there are so many influences into what is made in his Brownsville bakery. The Sweet Blvd, he said, is developing its own version.

“We’re still trying to make it better,” he said. “We’re working on putting a Texan style to it.”