This Cheesecake Is on the Honor System

Momo's decadent slices are available 24 hours a day in an Ellsworth garage.

This Cheesecake is on the Honor System | Down East Magazine
Lemon-blueberry cheesecake
By Joel Crabtree
Photos by Dave Dostie
From our March 2021 issue
This Cheesecake is on the Honor System | Down East Magazine
Brenda and Andres Ledezma

Brenda Ledezma’s garage is full of cheesecake. Pumpkin chocolate chip, pistachio, strawberry rhubarb, carrot cake, cookie dough, and dozens of other varieties. Ever since Ledezma started Momo’s Cheesecakes, in 2016, her garage has been open 24 hours a day, every day, for help-yourself service. The system is simple: walk in anytime, grab a prepackaged slice or two — or even a whole cake — and leave cash or a check. 

Momo is Ledezma’s nickname, short for “motormouth,” conferred by the manager of a local Chinese restaurant where she tended bar. Last summer, though, she quit restaurant work as her cheesecake side hustle grew into a full-time endeavor. The pandemic turned out to be good for a no-contact takeout business. “When COVID first started, we thought, ‘Oh, people aren’t going to be spending money,’” Ledezma recalls. “But no, it got busier. People had time on their hands. They would drive from three, four, five hours away.”

Momo’s was a destination even before — in the garage, a wall map jabbed with pushpins tracks customers from Maine, Montana, Canada, Russia, and so on — but the past year brought new levels of busyness. To keep up, Ledezma and her husband, Andres, converted their deck into extra kitchen space, and the couple now employs Ledezma’s sister and niece too. They’ve baked as many as 90 cheesecakes in a day. 

Turtle cheesecake; the self-serve garage.

Since she lives on-site, Ledezma has gotten to know some regulars. A few, she’s noticed, hide their sweet tooths from significant others by scarfing a slice outside and tossing the container in the trash bin by the garage. Her far-flung fans occasionally reach out to see if she’ll ship cheesecakes cross-country. But apart from supplying small orders to a few mom-and-pop shops within an easy drive, she’s happy to stick with what works — there’s still only one way to pick from Momo’s vast lineup, and it involves a stop in Ellsworth. “I love it, and I don’t see myself doing anything else,” Ledezma says. “I can have my cake and eat it too.”

471 Main St., Ellsworth. 207-598-8772. facebook.com/momoscheesecakes

HONOR ROLL

Four more help-yourself bakeshops that merit a slice of your time.

BLACK CROW BAKERY

In a red-clapboard ell attached to his 18th-century Cape, Mark Mickalide bakes baguettes, boules, cinnamon rolls, and focaccia, rye, and anadama breads in a wood-fired brick oven modeled after one his Albanian grandfather, also a baker, had in his Lewiston basement. Grab a loaf from the wire shelves and leave cash in a vintage Oreo tin. Open Mon. 3:30–7 p.m., Tues.–Sat. 7 a.m.–7 p.m. 235 Plains Rd., Litchfield. 207-268-9927.

FIVE ACRE FARM

Stop by when the wood-clapboard farm stand opens to snag one of Melinda Anderson’s quick-selling pies, along with homemade cookies, scones, granola, and grocery staples like butter, milk, and eggs. Log your purchases in a notebook and drop cash through a slot in the wooden counter or use your credit card at a self-service kiosk. Open daily 9 a.m.–6 p.m. 3 Bryant Ln., Kennebunkport. 207-286-9848.

PUZZLE MOUNTAIN BAKERY

Twenty-five years ago, Mary Jo Kelly set some fruit pies with handwritten price tags on a table at the end of her driveway, on Route 26 in Newry, and screwed a metal cash box into a nearby tree. Soon, hikers returning from Grafton Notch State Park had cleaned her out — and paid in full for their purchases. So Kelly continued to offer goodies on the honor system, eventually adding cookies and jam to the mix, and later building a shed and nearby roadside kitchen. Today, Kelly’s son, Ryan Wheeler, and his wife, Devon, keep the shed stocked from Memorial Day weekend through November. Open Thurs.–Mon. 806 Bear River Rd., Newry.

WILD FERN PIES

Sarah Brown furnishes this little roadside pie-and-coffee stand, perched in a wildflower field on her property, with full-size and hand pies, lattice-topped and crumble, filled with inventive combos like blueberry-plum and blackberry-pear. She also makes cakes, scones, quiches, and more. She’ll take phone orders for pickup too. Open Mon. and Fri., 7 a.m.–sell out. 635 Naskeag Rd., Brooklin. 207-412-1290.

Down East Magazine, November 2024

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