Fact Check

Is The Cheesecake Factory Closing All Its Restaurants?

Search terms and headlines landed the popular chain in Google's "Trending Searches," as well as in breaking news mobile notifications.

Published Oct. 30, 2020

HUNTINGTON STATION, NEW YORK  - MARCH 26: A general view of the Cheesecake Factory logo on their restaurant in the Walt Whitman Mall on March 26, 2020 in Huntington Station, New York. Across the country schools, businesses and places of work have either been shut down or are restricting hours of operation as health officials try to slow the spread of COVID-19. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
Claim:
The Cheesecake Factory is closing all of its restaurants for good.

On Oct. 30, 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic was hitting all-time highs for cases in the U.S., the search term "cheesecake factory closing restaurants" showed up in Google's "Trending Searches" on mobile phones:

The news also showed up as a News Break notification:

Twitter users appeared to believe The Cheesecake Factory restaurant locations were closing:

However, The Cheesecake Factory is not closing down all of its restaurants. The trending search and notification referenced the fact that RockSugar Southeast Asian Kitchen was being closed. That restaurant is owned by The Cheesecake Factory Inc.

The scare for fans of The Cheesecake Factory appeared to come from an Oct. 30 Yahoo Life story that said The Cheesecake Factory Inc. "also operates a smaller number of additional restaurant concepts, several of which have shuttered locations this year. The casual-dining restaurant group just announced the closure of RockSugar Southeast Asian Kitchen, an Asian fusion restaurant in Los Angeles owned and operated by the restaurant group."

On Oct. 29, 2020, The Cheesecake Factory Inc. reported its third quarter 2020 fiscal financial results, providing the following update via the Associated Press:

As of today, approximately 90% of the Company’s restaurants across its concepts, including 187 Cheesecake Factory locations, are operating with reopened indoor dining rooms with limited capacity in accordance with local mandates and social distancing protocols. On average, Cheesecake Factory restaurants with reopened dining rooms are operating at 50% capacity. Approximately 7% of the Company’s restaurants across its concepts, including 17 Cheesecake Factory locations, are operating with reopened patios with social distancing in accordance with California and Toronto dining restrictions. Currently, two locations, including one Cheesecake Factory restaurant, are operating an off-premise only model and five locations across the Company’s concepts are currently closed.

As of October 2020, The Cheesecake Factory restaurant locations are not closing their doors.

Jordan Liles is a Senior Reporter who has been with Snopes since 2016.

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