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Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Cheesecake Factory Owns You

People go to Cheesecake Factory to wait.

It's a busy Friday or Saturday night and the "idea" of Cheesecake Factory sounds...luxurious. They want to announce to all of their friends "I'm going to Cheesecake Factory (I must be fabulous)" they say in return, "Oh you're going to Cheesecake Factory, you are so spectacular".

Cheesecake has done an unbelievable job at convincing people that their restaurant is something special and then taking it a step further to make them wait 2.6 hours in order to get in. It's amazing. How do they do it? Why are people waiting?

I'm not convinced that Cheesecake is worth waiting 2.6 hours for and the last time I was there was about 2 years ago. Luckily for us, we have had a gift card since December and it was in desperate need of usage. I was determined not to wait a single minute so after careful research and thought I concluded that Saturday at 11:45am is the ideal time to avoid a wait.

I was wrong. We had to wait 10 minutes. What is it about Cheesecake that even if there is a 10 minute wait it looks like it's packed. The hostesses in their high hostess tower with 14 computer screens control people's destiny and look down on you and try to get you to leave through angry eye contact.

We got seated in a nice booth and we were greeted by an outstanding server. She brought us our drinks and left us alone to read the Cheesecake Factory menu book. Have you seen this thing? It's about 40 pages long, has all fine print text and awkward ads that get in the way of me reading every description of their 1,598 menu items. They should change their name to Food Factory instead of Cheesecake Factory since they have every food on earth.

It took us awhile to decide what to eat. I wanted something I couldn't get anywhere else. The answer was Buffalo Blasts...chicken breast, cheese and spicy buffalo sauce all stuffed in a spicy wrapper and fried until crisp. Heaven....

This is like a boneless buffalo wing stuffed in a mini tortilla then deep fried. Quite possibly the most amazing thing I have ever tasted. I have never seen anything like this before. It is a genius invention!

Another reason that Cheesecake is genius is because you have to get dessert. You have no option. Would you dare to visit a Cheesecake Factory and then not get cheesecake and risk being verbally and emotionally abused by the servers? I don't think so. You are sold that you're getting dessert before you even walk in the door. Cheesecake Factory owns every person that walks in the door. For two reasons:

1. They can make you wait as long as they want.
2. You're getting dessert (no question).

The best part about lunch though after the deep fried goodness and the cheesecake was that we had a very nice booth location near the hostess tower and we could watch the 456 people all crammed inside eyeing our booth begging us to get up so they could sit down. It amazes me that at 1pm on a Saturday afternoon they were on at least an hour wait. Since so many people were waiting I decided to get drinks to go. This was just my attempt at trying to get back at Cheesecake Factory for making me wait for 10 minutes and then demanding I order dessert against my will.

(If you have made it through reading this whole post - sorry it's so long!)

Posted by Dan Holm at 7:33 PM
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9 comments:

  1. I have to disagree. I've been to cheesecake factory numerous times, I would say I go at least once every 3 weeks. Rarely do I ever wait more than 30 minutes, except during extreme busy hours. However, the buffalo blasts are absolutely delicious. One of my favorite appetizers on the menu.
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  2. What is my favorite restaurant on Earth? Everybody together now...CHEESECAKE FACTORY. That's right. I know the entire menu and I LOVE it all. The best thing would have to be the stuffed chicken tortillas due to the fact that they come with sweet corn tamale cakes. OH MY GOSH, those are amazing. Oh, I like anything corn, but these are breathtaking. You didn't mention the bread before the meal, which rocks. And my only complaint? They got rid of their giant brownie sandwich. That was once my favorite dessert EVER. 2 huge brownies, 8 scoops of ice cream, lots of fudge and WHIPPED CREAM! So great. But, it's gone. The white chocolate macadamia nut cheesecake, it's seasonal, is very enjoyable though and I appreciate them having that. Daniel...I am taking you and your wife to the Sunday brunch at Cheesecake. I've never been
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  3. while i agree that the cheesecake factory is not worth the wait, how can you say cheesecake is not worth a 2.6hour wait... need i remind you on New York... Serendipity... HEAVEN! i would have waited 3 times as long as we did!
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  4. The Cobb Salad and Cookie Dough Cheesecake at CF are well worth a 2.6 hour wait.
    ReplyDelete
  5. Alright, Cheesecake Factory I would gladly wait for. Everytime I go to Millinea Mall I am always faced with a choice. PF Changs, or Chesse Cake. Now both restaurants usually have exactly the same wait time. Now we go into both restaurants and put our name in and get those buzzer things. This is where the game begins. All of my friends and I place bets on which resturant is going to call us first. About 80% of the time P.F Changs calls us first. I am always a litte saddened when this happens.

    Now anyway, on the times we do go to chesse cake my life become complete. Like Dan says Cheese cake makes you feel as if you are a higher member of society.

    The menu is very impressive, and although there are a GA-zillion ads, which do get in the way but it also makes the menu look bigger. Talking about bigger the portions are HUGE! I usually get the cheeseburger and have to tell myself that I WILL finish it before I get it...or it will never happen.

    Now on to the cheesecake. Let me tell you I know my cheesecake...and the factory has somehow come up with 1000 different flavors. Now the Oreo is freaken amazing.

    So the wait is, hands down, WORTH IT!
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  6. The cobb salad DOES rock.
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  7. The last time I visited the Cheesecake Factory was when I lived in Phoenix, AZ. Back then you wanted at least a 30-45 minute wait because you wanted to savor the Appletinis. And. I agree that the Cobb salad is extraordinary
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  8. stuffed chicken tortillas are onr of (if not the) best thing I've ever eaten. They always surpass my high expectations.
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  9. Service at the Cheesecake Factory in Winter Park, FL is horrendous. You must literally tackle wait staff if you need anything.

    Waiting for 1+ hours is one thing. But when it's finally "your turn" you should see your waiter more than taking your initial order and giving you a check.
    ReplyDelete

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