- The first The Cheesecake Factory restaurant opened in Beverly Hills, California, in 1978.
- Its CEO and founder, David Overton, opened it to promote his mother’s cheesecake business.
- The restaurant took off. It went public in 1992 and is a top-40 chain in the US in terms of sales.
The Cheesecake Factory is one of the top 40 restaurant chains in the US, known for its voluminous menu of cheesecakes, pastas, sandwiches, and appetizers, such as its famed avocado egg rolls.
But fans may not realize that the publicly traded company, with a market cap of nearly $1.7 billion, was a family-run bakery business for years before it scaled across the US and abroad.
“Growing up, it was all about cheesecake. And we knew people loved it,” Cheesecake Factory CEO David Overton said in a video on the company’s website.
Overton is referring to his mom’s cheesecake business. On and off for years, Evelyn Overton sold her cheesecakes to local restaurants in Detroit and Los Angeles. But her wholesale bakery never took off. Many restaurants scoffed at the idea of selling flavored cheesecakes.
So the younger Overton, a musician at the time, decided to open a restaurant in 1978 to showcase his mom’s variety of cheesecakes.
He had no restaurant experience. But he had determination.
“We knew we had the Cadillac of cheesecakes, and we knew that everyone loved our cheesecake,” he said in the video. “I’ve got to get our cake to people.”
Over the next 45 years, Overton turned his mom’s cheesecakes into a national sensation. Slices and whole cakes are sold not only in restaurants but also in supermarkets around the US, including the grocery sections of Target and Walmart.
It all started with a recipe clipping from a Detroit newspaper.
Take a closer look at The Cheesecake Factory’s early beginnings.
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