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It runs restaurants and sells cheesecake to grocery stores.
The Cheesecake Factory makes money in two very different ways, and that split is the whole story. First, it runs big, busy restaurants where people sit down and order enormous portions of pasta, burgers, and, of course, cheesecake. Second, it sells its cheesecake and other baked goods wholesale to grocery stores and other retailers through a business it calls North Italia Bakery. The restaurants bring in the large majority of sales, but the bakery side is the higher-margin, less glamorous engine that quietly throws off cash.
Think of it as two businesses under one roof: a theater of a restaurant that packs in crowds, and a factory that cranks out cakes for supermarket freezers. The restaurant segment is roughly 85% of revenue, with over 200 locations mostly in the U.S., plus a handful of licensed spots abroad. The bakery segment sells to warehouse clubs, grocery chains, and even other restaurants, and it has been growing as more people buy cheesecake to eat at home.
The company got its start in 1978 when Evelyn and Oscar Overton opened a small cheesecake shop in Detroit, then a restaurant in Beverly Hills. Today it trades on the Nasdaq and uses its free cash to pay a dividend, buy back shares, and slowly open new restaurants. It has also been expanding its smaller brands, like North Italia and Flower Child, which are faster-growing and aimed at younger diners. The main risk is that casual dining is a tough, competitive business, and rising labor and food costs squeeze profits. But the cheesecake wholesale arm gives it a steadier, higher-margin cushion that most restaurant chains don't have.
Saved answer · last researched 11 Oct 2026