Eli M. Schulman was born on Chicago's West Side in the Greater Lawndale area. When Eli was just 16, his father, a baker, passed away, forcing him to drop out of high school and take care of his mother and siblings. He sold newspapers and delivered packages, hawked shoes out of the back of his car on Maxwell Street, and sold scorecards and seat cushions at the ballparks in the summer. Eli’s relentless work ethic and ingenuity set the tone for what would be a long and successful career in hospitality.

It all started in 1940, when Eli Schulman found a foreclosure sign on the door of his favorite coffee shop. Armed with his mother's recipes and a twinkle in his eye, he bought the place, named it Eli's Ogden Huddle, and the rest is history!

Eli hung a sign in the window: "If you are hungry and have no money, come in. We will feed you." That set the tone for the charitable spirit that continues to define Eli's today. One of our favorite Eli stories is from opening day, when Eli found the cook passed out drunk. A customer ordered a veal cutlet, and Eli ran to the kitchen to call his mother for instructions on how to make it. The customer seemed happy with the dish, and when he came back after a new cook had started, he told Eli, "It was better the first time." Although Eli had no restaurant or cooking experience, if he could dream it, he could make it.

In 1941, Eli was drafted into the Army Air Corps. which turned out to be his culinary school of sorts. While Eli’s brother Nate and sister Bertha ran Eli’s Ogden Huddle, Eli ran air base restaurants in Texas, Colorado, and Utah, where he cooked for large numbers of people, baked cakes, and even finagled a way to run soft drinks through the water fountains.

Upon returning from the Army, Eli married Esther Nettis, who worked with Eli throughout his career. After World War II, Chicago’s North Side was booming: people were buying houses, having babies, and eating out. Eli jumped on the trend and joined the mass exodus north, opening a second location at Argyle and Sheridan.

Eli, known as the "salami surgeon," set his sights on the Gold Coast and opened Eli's Stage Delicatessen in 1962. Just down the street from Mister Kelly's, the deli became a gathering place for entertainers like Barbra Streisand, comedians, politicians, columnists, and everyday Chicagoans: where you'd come for a mile-high corned beef sandwich and stay for the warm, welcoming atmosphere.

In 1966, Eli realized his dream of opening a white tablecloth restaurant, Eli's The Place for Steak. It was a neighborhood joint with a celebrity hangout vibe and a jazzy piano bar. People clamored for reservations to enjoy the famous Liver Eli, juicy steaks, and Shrimp ala Marc, but everyone really came to see Eli himself. He worked seven days a week and knew what every person needed to have a great night. 

Eli didn't become a cheesecake legend until he was 70! At the famous Eli's The Place For Steak, he became obsessed with finding the perfect dessert for his customers (His least favorite was fresh fruit... "It can look great, but taste like a potato… and that's the last thing people remember."). What he wanted didn't exist, so he rolled up his sleeves and made it himself.  Between lunch and dinner service, he headed to the kitchen to experiment with cheesecake recipes, and then tested his latest batch on his regular customers.  While breaking all the rules of traditional cheesecake baking, like skipping the water bath for a fast, hot bake, what came out of his kitchen wasn't just another cheesecake. He actually created a new category of cheesecake, recognized by the culinary world as Chicago-style: Rich and impossibly creamy, beautifully caramelized, with an all-butter shortbread cookie crust.

No one knew what to expect on that sunny July 4th, 1980, at the first Taste of Chicago: Mayor Jane Byrne's brainchild to show off Chicago's vibrant culinary scene. The crowds swarmed Michigan Avenue, and Eli feverishly cut cheesecake in a suit and tie. The booth was booming and the crowd couldn't get enough. It was such a hit that other restaurateurs wanted his cheesecake on their menus. Eli's Cheesecake was joining the ranks of Chicago's most famous foods, along with deep dish pizza, hot dogs, and Italian beef. 

To expand and carry on his father's legacy, Eli's son Marc left behind a successful legal career to open The Eli's Cheesecake Company. Production moved from the restaurant to a rented bakery on Chicago's northwest side, and as demand grew, so did the operation. Marc built the best team possible, led by the incomparable pastry chef Jolene Worthington. In 1996, Eli's Cheesecake World opened as a state-of-the-art bakery, where every Eli's dessert continues to be made with the same care Eli brought to his restaurant kitchen.

Marc Schulman believes that empowering Eli's associates is critical to the success of the business. In the early 1990s, Eli's partnered with Wright College (City Colleges of Chicago) to bring a General Educational Development (GED) program to the bakery. Eli's GED candidates took on-site classes three days a week while their coworkers covered for them. This gave working parents the chance to earn their GED and still get home in time to be with their families. The day before the 1992 Illinois primary, then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton visited Chicago and made a campaign stop at Eli's Cheesecake, specifically because of the bakery's innovative education program. Clinton won Illinois, and we like to think the cheesecake helped! In 1993, Eli's made a giant "Red, White and Bill" cheesecake for President Clinton's inauguration in Washington, D.C.

We grew out of our first bakery and broke ground on Eli's Cheesecake World, our 62,000-square-foot bakery which houses our corporate offices, retail store and cafe,  where every Eli's dessert is made. Today, we continue to invest and grow, and in 2023 we added another 40,000 square feet.

Elana Schulman, Eli's granddaughter and Marc's daughter, joined the family business and proudly represents the third generation. She says, "I am the luckiest person in the world. I get to carry on my grandfather's legacy while working with and learning from my dad, the most caring and charitable person I know. And I love cheesecake!" Elana previously worked as a producer of food shows in New York and is a James Beard Award winner for a documentary series about sushi. She is also a graduate of Vassar College and received an MBA from Northwestern Kellogg School of Business.  

Eli's is a Chicago-born, third-generation family-owned bakery devoted to hand-crafting the best cheesecake and desserts in the world, still using Eli's original recipes. We live by Eli Schulman's golden rules: "Treat others as if you were the other," and "Charity will never bust you," because at Eli's, we believe everyone deserves a seat at the table. Beyond making delicious desserts, we're committed to empowering our workforce through education, supporting hundreds of charities annually, and creating opportunities for refugees and people with disabilities. Today, Eli's son Marc and Eli's granddaughter Elana continue the family tradition of bringing people together through amazing desserts while making a positive impact in the
community.