Self-taught baker Harreld Webster, Jr., poses at the counter of his bakery, Triple Dipple’s, in downtown Chillicothe. Webster opened the bakery last summer after turning a baking hobby into a full-time career. (Photo by Elise Zwicky / for Chronicle Media)

Chillicothe is the ultimate winner in one man’s quest to find the perfect cheesecake.

Harreld Webster, Jr., opened Triple Dipple’s, the town’s only stand-alone bakery, last summer after switching careers when he discovered how fun and satisfying it was to make his own delicacies.

“I did not ever want to grow up to become a baker. It was not something that was even in my view,” said Webster, a California native. “But I enjoy eating and I enjoy eating well, so my stomach led the way.”

Located at 940 N. Second St. in downtown Chillicothe, Triple Dipple’s offers four varieties of individual-sized cheesecakes daily, as well as a unique flavor of the week, plus pies, cookies and cakes. The shop is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. 

Webster had been working as an environmental services supervisor for the Head Start program in Peoria in 2014 when he first got a hankering for cheesecake that he couldn’t fulfill to his liking in Peoria, where he makes his home with his wife and three kids.

“So I went online and found the highest-rated recipe and made it for the family for a holiday, and everybody loved it except me,” Webster said. “I just wasn’t satisfied.”

After doing more research and continually trying to tweak the recipe, Webster eventually called his mother in Los Angeles and sweet-talked her into giving him her sweet potato pie recipe, which he turned into a cheesecake.

“It was incredible,” he recalled with a laugh. “I took it to work and shared it with people, and they immediately started asking me to make them cheesecakes for their Thanksgiving.”

Triple Dipple’s owner Harreld Webster, Jr., committed to coming up with a new cheesecake flavor every week for a year when he opened Triple Dipple’s bakery in Chillicothe last July. This amaretto cherry cheesecake infused with amaretto and filled with sweet and tart cherries was a featured flavor in April. (Photo by Elise Zwicky / for Chronicle Media)

Webster began making cheesecakes for friends and co-workers, but he still wasn’t thinking about turning the hobby into a full-time business until his sister-in-law suggested making them smaller and taking them to vendor shows.

“I went online again and started researching how to make small cheesecakes for individuals, and we ordered a couple of pans, thinking a dozen cheesecakes were all we’d need,” he said.

When the pastries sold out at that first vendor show in 2015, it finally dawned on Webster that he could make a career out of his new-found love for baking. He talked with the Peoria County Health Department about food handling requirements and registered the business name Triple Dipple’s, which was inspired by his 11-year-old son’s nickname “Trips” since he’s Harreld Webster III.

“Then my wife suggested we try a farmer’s market. I was terrified because that was a lot more than just a room full of people,” Webster said. As with the vendor shows, his cheesecakes and cake pops were a big hit at the Peoria Riverfront Market.

Since he’d been renting a commercial kitchen and hauling everything to the shows and markets, Webster had begun to think about possibly having his own shop, but a bit of serendipity led him to the Chillicothe storefront he now occupies.

“We were doing a vendor show in Chillicothe with Connie Ware, and she mentioned that Chillicothe didn’t have a bakery, so that kind of piqued my interest,” Webster said. “There used to be one but it had closed down about a year ago after being completely remodeled not long before.”

After looking at the space and praying about it over a weekend with his wife, Tagwana, Webster signed a lease a few days later. “It was pristine. We basically just had to decorate and bring in our equipment. It’s the perfect place,” he said.

Triple Dipple’s in downtown Chillicothe features four varieties of individual-sized cheesecakes daily, as well as a unique flavor of the week, plus pies, cookies and cakes. Owner Harreld Webster, Jr., said coming up with new flavors in the kitchen “is like a playground to me.” (Photo by Elise Zwicky / for Chronicle Media)

Webster had left his job at Head Start and was working as a substitute teacher for Peoria Public Schools while doing the vendor shows and farmer’s markets, but he now only works at the bakery, which is more than full-time. He’ll continue to do the Peoria Riverfront Market and a farmer’s market in Morton this summer.

The Chillicothe community and beyond has embraced the bakery with more than 2,200 likes on its Facebook page.

The bakery offers its four top-selling cheesecakes every week–strawberry, Oreo, Turtle and sweet tater—and introduces a new flavor each week that can then be requested at any time with two days notice, as long as the ingredients are available.

“We post the flavor of the week on Facebook and Instagram and Twitter, so it’s fun for me to see people comment and go crazy over certain flavors,” Webster said.

Among the concoctions Webster is proud of is a strawberry champagne cheesecake he created for Valentine’s Day, which  has a vanilla wafer crust, a whole strawberry inside the strawberry champagne-infused cheesecake and topped with a strawberry champagne whipped cream.

Webster hopes to expand and hire a few employees at some point in the future but in the meantime he runs the shop with volunteer help from a few friends and family, including his wife and three children, 18-year-old Madisen, 13-year-old Macy and 11-year-old Harreld, who are all food handler certified.

“The most challenging part is the long hours,” said Webster, who starts baking at about 5 a.m. and typically stays until closing. “But I enjoy interacting with people, and I’m having fun in the kitchen. It’s like a playground for me.”

For more information about Triple Dipple’s, visit the business’s Facebook page or website at www.tripledipples.com or call (309) 340-9540.

—Perfect cheesecake? Look no further than Chillicothe’s Triple Dipple’s bakery–