Sweat, sacrifice & sweet success; the story behind Louisville's top dessert shop

Big Nita's Cheesecakes sells out every day they're open. The business has gone "viral" more than once, bringing in customers from across the country. But this business was born out of desperation and the owners never forget that.

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In the middle of her commercial kitchen, at the back of Big Nita's Cheesecakes on Main Street, Nicole Burks told me it all comes down to time... the time it takes to hand-mix every batter for every cheesecake, the time each one takes in the oven, there's the cooldown time in the fridge, the intricate decorating that cuts no corners and then the time it takes to slice and pre-package hundreds of slices of cake every week.

There is never enough time to meet their demand.

But that desire for time is ironic when you look back just five years... long before Big Nita's was born... when Burks said too much time was the problem. "I needed something to buy up my time, especially after work and on the weekends. When I was outside of work, I struggled the most," she said.

For most, March of 2020 was a time of uncertainty but for Burks every minute had a mission... stay sober, get better.

"I was just looking for anything in my life to get me back, like, on the straight and narrow, you know? I was trying so hard to be, like a good person, but I didn't have anything to help me so... doing all this," Burks said through tears, "this gave me a reason."