The dependable, unexpected draw of Center City’s Cheesecake Factory

On a recent Friday, Wolfgang Blank and Trisha O’Rourke picked a familiar spot for date night: the Center City Cheesecake Factory.

Without a reservation, the couple walked in around 7:30 p.m. and were promptly seated in a booth. Under the warm glow of the restaurant’s ornate fixtures, they shared egg rolls, spicy rigatoni, steak frites, and a cherry chocolate cheesecake.

“It’s a random date, [and I] definitely don’t want to spend $500 on a fancy meal,” Blank said. “It’s not Royal Izakaya, but it’s a nice spot — it’s not like you’re taking your date out to McDonald’s or something.”

“Also, I feel anywhere else around here in Rittenhouse, you have a reservation or you wait two hours,” O’Rourke added. “And we don’t have time to do that.”

Drake’s favorite chain restaurant, famous for its encyclopedic menu and gilded interior, has long been a draw for what he describes as “families who drive Camrys and go to Disney” — and for Philadelphians. The Center City location, which opened in 2015, is hard to miss: a glass-walled box crowned with a neon-red sign that pulls people in from the corner of 15th and Walnut Streets. Families, friends, couples, and solo diners stream through the oversized glass doors and ride a dramatic escalator into a gold-hued dining room, where endless baskets of bread, massive plates, and towering slices of cheesecake await.

“Please don’t ever close the Cheesecake Factory,” Munijah Goodin said. “My heart would be crushed if I had to tell my kids — when I ask them, ‘Where y’all want to go?’ They scream ‘the Cheesecake Factory.’”

Goodin and her two friends ventured to Center City for a birthday dinner. They intended to celebrate at a BYOB on Chestnut Street. But when they arrived for their 9:45 p.m. reservation, the restaurant turned them away, saying it would close at 10.

“They turned us around, and we said we love cheesecake so much we’re going to the Cheesecake Factory,” Goodin said. “The food is good; the staff is great, and it’s affordable for a single mother like me.”

The group slid into a booth and ordered shrimp scampi, crab dip, “yummy cocktails,” three bottles of wine, and — naturally — cheesecake.

For Jay and Arlene Childs, who traveled from New Hampshire to visit their daughter, Sarah, dinner at the Cheesecake Factory was pure chance. Twice in one night, power outages shut down restaurants where they had booked reservations. Their fallback: the Cheesecake Factory.

“It wasn’t in the cards to come here, but it worked out and we had a great meal,” Jay said, listing ginger filet medallions with rice, “skinny” steak medallions with vegetables, “skinny” chicken tomato pasta, and cheesecakes to go.

“When I was in college and my friends and I couldn’t afford the pricier, upscale Philly food scene, we’d come here for each other’s birthdays,” Sarah said. “It’s decent food and good cheesecakes, what’s not to love?”

That mix of affordability and predictability is also what draws 19-year-olds Jonah Robinson and Riley Boilard back for their yap sessions. The two friends met on Friday night to spill the tea on work drama over Diet Cokes, “lot of bread,” four-cheese pasta, and a chicken sandwich.

“This is our place,” Robinson said. But not for the cheesecake, “we come here for the pasta.”

For Blank and O’Rourke, skipping the cheesecake would be unthinkable. But the couple said any trip to the chain is worth it when you’re on a budget, free of the reservation hassle, and seeking a comforting meal.

“I think it’s really cool that [the chain] can keep it [up]: anybody can be here and afford a night out.”