The Cheesecake Factory is quietly proving there’s more than one way to win in casual dining

The Cheesecake Factory is in a great spot right now. | Photo courtesy of The Cheesecake Factory

Don’t sleep on The Cheesecake Factory.

The casual-dining comeback has been making headlines for a couple of years now, with the conversation dominated by Chili’s (the aggressive marketer coming for the Golden Arches!) and Texas Roadhouse (the epitome of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”). But Cheesecake Factory is quickly proving that there is more than one winning strategy to rise to the top in the casual-dining category.

While Chili’s had probably the flashiest turnaround by choosing their own competition and churning out viral menu items and ad campaigns, Texas Roadhouse’s game is consistency and loyalty built steadily over time. The Cheesecake Factory’s strategy is somewhere in the middle.

This quarter, The Cheesecake Factory posted another $1 billion in revenue (after reaching that number for the first time in company history last quarter) and 15.2% same-store sales growth. How did the casual-dining company get there? By leveraging the natural appeal of the brand to update its place in the digital zeitgeist.

“The Cheesecake Factory is a highly differentiated brand, and the breadth and visual appeal of our menu naturally lends itself to engaging and shareable social content,” company President David Gordon said during the company’s third quarter earnings call last week.

The Cheesecake Factory is known for its restaurants’ distinctive Egyptian-inspired columns and a 21-page menu featuring scratch-made items. Despite this “highly differentiated” status, Cheesecake Factory executives are the first to admit that the company was not leaning into the unique vibes of Cheesecake enough in digital marketing.

Gordon said that the company had previously been “a little gun-shy” on social media and now posts more frequently to “amplify organic engagement and discovery … beyond our existing guest base.”

One example of a social media moment that recently fell into the brand’s lap was the viral Cajun Salmon “hack” posted and reviewed all over TikTok last month. While the dish was not new to The Cheesecake Factory, one poster upgraded it by asking to add Cajun shrimp on top and extra sauce. Mega-influencer Keith Lee even tried the popular restaurant menu hack. Cheesecake Factory CMO Donald Evans publicly acknowledged and encouraged the menu hacks popping up on social media.

Besides ramping up their digital marketing strategy, The Cheesecake Factory is pulling other levers including a focus on menu innovation (like the new Bowls & Bites menu section) and converting TikTok-curious consumers into repeat rewards customers.

Essentially, The Cheesecake Factory is confident in the brand it has built and is now focused on getting the word out — reminding people why its vaguely Egyptian Revival-style pillars and novel-length menu have kept the brand going for all these years.

“Certainly, we'll continue to monitor those social channels, influence them appropriately when we think we should and, most importantly, execute against those new sales and the traffic growth because we don't want it to be a one-and-done situation. It never has been at Cheesecake Factory,” Gordon said. “We're building brand loyalty and guest loyalty for the long term.”

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