Caterer Middle East caught up with CEO of the Cheesecake Factory, David Overton, at the launch of the chain’s latest restaurant at the Mall of the Emirates in Dubai
Tell me about you & cheesecakes...
Well my mother made cheesecakes, it’s a family business, and she moved from Detroit to Los Angeles later in her life to have a last attempt at a business of her own.
So I started to help her and I thought that she needed to, instead of just wholesaling the product, they needed to get it right to the people, so that’s why we thought of opening a restaurant in Beverly Hills.
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The first one opened in 1978 and that really put us on the map. People loved the concept of the Cheesecake Factory and of course they loved the cheesecakes. At the time we only had 12 cheesecakes, now we have over 40. So over the years we’ve added to the menu and it’s grown into quite a company.
What prompted the new launch?
Alshaya is our licensee so they’re leading the growth and where we go and what we do. So we feel that two of the very best locations in the city are this mall and the Dubai Mall because they’re two of the very best, busiest locations around. But again we take our lead from Alshaya, so if they like it then we go ahead and build it.
Has Alshaya’s knowledge of the local market helped with establishing tcf in this region?
They do all the real estate and all the construction, and so far this is our third together, we’ve had all three open this year and we’re very happy with the relationship so far.
So is there an agreement in place to open a certain amount in a certain period of time?
They agreed to open 25 restaurants in five years in the Emirates so we’re on our way to doing that. They’re building a project in Abu Dhabi, in Qatar and most likely we’ll go to Cairo and Beirut as well and other cities that Alshaya’s big in, so we’re very excited.
These are your first restaurants outside the us. Why the middle east?
I think it was really all about the Alshaya company. They visited us, I saw how they were operating Dean & Deluca, I saw that they were very serious, that they really wanted to replicate our concept exactly and I felt that the organisation was strong enough.
And of course coming here and seeing the malls, seeing Dubai Mall, seeing Mall of the Emirates, we felt that they would be a very good company to start with.
What will the new Cheesecake factory offer?
This is twice as big as the Dubai Mall at 550 seats. In fact, this is the largest Cheesecake Factory we have; we don’t have another restaurant this big. Dubai’s a great city, these are both big projects, and we opened our restaurants and we just hope that people come.
But so far our first two days have been very, very good, so we feel great about it. The other difference is of course all the windows and views of the ski slope.
And almost everyone that comes in here wants to sit by the window and watch the ski slope. And that’s a big feature like the aquarium is at the Dubai Mall. We’re very lucky to have both of those.
Have you had to adapt your offering in any way to suit the local market?
So far, everything is exactly the same, except of course there’s no pork, there’s no alcohol and all the meat is halal. The portion sizes, the variety, all of those things are the same as they are in the States and at the moment it’s working well.
Supply can of course be difficult at different times to get everything. We certainly have access to everything it’s just getting it here on time.
Whether it’s a plane or boat or whatever. I think every restaurant has the same problems here, because almost everything comes from outside the country, there’s not a lot grown here, so if you want the right vegetables, the right fruits, then you’ve got to bring it in.
What are your future plans for expansion across the region?
I think Alshaya does have plans, we’ll be going to Abu Dhabi, we’ll be going to Qatar, we’ll be going to Beirut, and they have other plans as well, so I think there’s going to be a lot of growth with them. They’re in 18 or 19 countries right now so all of those one day may have a Cheesecake Factory.
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