Not many concepts earn as much per restaurant as The Cheesecake Factory, especially at a scale of 200-plus stores nationwide. The casual-dining brand not only maintained that gap in Q1, but widened it further.
The chain’s average weekly sales reached an all-time high in the quarter, pushing to nearly $12.8 million in annualized unit volumes. The result was supported by a 22 percent off-premises mix, similar to Q4 and Q1 2025.
The first three months of 2026 exceeded Cheesecake’s expectations. Comps lifted 1.6 percent and outperformed the industry by 0.4 percent. Same-store sales were backed by 3.3 percent pricing, offset by negative 1.4 percent traffic—a material improvement from Q4—and negative 0.3 percent menu mix.
Additionally, restaurant-level profit margins rose 0.1 percent year-over-year to 17.5 percent. Total sales were $690.5 million, up 3 percent from the prior year.
Leadership attributed growth to multiple areas, including culinary innovation. The brand called out its new bites and expanded bowls lineup, which have delivered customer satisfaction and perceived value. Particularly with bites, customers are purchasing them as incremental add-ons rather than meal replacements, mitigating concerns around check attrition.
President David Gordon said the menu additions contributed to sequential improvements in traffic and check mix; this influx allowed the chain to raise menu prices at a slower pace without impacting margins.
“Certainly, menu innovation is going to remain core to everything that we do. I think you can expect in our next menu change that we’ll be refreshing some new bowls and bites, and there’ll be some new opportunities for guests to enjoy some new flavor profiles and some new interesting innovative menu items, whether that’s on the bowls and bites menu or on the main menu and in bowls and bites,” Gordon said.
CFO Matthew Clark also noted that external factors are playing in Cheesecake’s favor. If the U.S. is experiencing a K-shaped economy, that dynamic benefits the chain, which skews toward higher-income consumers. Clark also relayed that the job market is steady, discretionary income is up slightly—more than Cheesecake’s price increases. Also, consumers are spending more on experiences than goods, and the brand positions itself as experiential rather than purely transactional.
Additionally, the company has one of the largest menus in the industry, eliminating veto votes and catering to GLP-1 users looking to change up their palate.
“You can get anything you want to eat. And at Cheesecake Factory, you can get steamed salmon with broccoli, if that’s what you want and heavy up on the proteins,” Clark said.
Operationally, Cheesecake saw improvements in labor productivity, food cost management, and other controllable expenses, while keeping hourly and management retention in check and garnering high guest satisfaction scores.
“The continued retention we see in the restaurants at the hourly staff and management level quarter after quarter after quarter, has allowed the operations teams to execute as well as they ever have,” Gordon said. “And we continue to see that type of execution. We see it in the results of our Net Promoter Scores continuing to be positive. And that just has a flywheel effect of guests wanting to come back and having those type of experiences.”
Looking ahead toward the rest of 2026, Cheesecake Rewards will be a significant driver.
The company’s launch of its first mobile app went well, ranking No. 3 overall and No. 1 in food and drink in terms of downloads during rollout week in early April. So far, the chain has received “overwhelmingly positive” feedback around the app’s ease of use when it comes to making reservations, browsing the menu and placing orders, accessing rewards, and reordering previous meals. Adoption rates continue to increase, especially from new customers.
“At the same time, we continue to refine the program toward more targeted behavior-based personalized offers with an increased focus on life cycle management,” Gordon said. “So far this year, we’ve seen higher engagement, improved incrementality, and greater offer efficiency.”
CFO Matthew Clark expects the app to play a factor in Cheesecake maintaining positive comps throughout Q2.
“I think we feel cautiously optimistic about the rollout of the app and the incrementality that we have potential to drive there,” Clark said. “We rolled out incremental more new menu items in the first quarter, and we saw progressively improving incident rate trends on those. So generally, I would say we have a bullish outlook on our business at this time.”
At North Italia, same-store sales dropped 2 percent in Q1 and annualized AUV was $7.4 million.
Despite negative results, Gordon emphasized that the chain remains focused “on returning to positive sales growth, and we remain confident in the concept’s competitive positioning and long-term opportunity.”
The brand is seeing better retention numbers for management and hourly staff, and new restaurant openings are seeing average weekly sales “meaningfully” above the system average. Additionally, North Italia recently rolled out a guest feedback platform used by Cheesecake, which should provide better operational insights. Also, the chain’s upcoming menu will feature a new lunch section with lighter options, like revamped salads and more protein offerings.
Restaurant-level profit margin for adjusted mature North Italia locations was 14.8 percent in Q1 compared to 16.6 percent in Q1 2025. The decline was because of lower sales and higher costs around repairs, maintenance, and utilities.
Flower Child’s comps increased 10 percent, outpacing the fast-casual segment. Same-store sales rose 15 percent on a two-year basis. The Q1 performance translated to $4.9 million in annualized AUV, a new quarterly high. Restaurant-level profit margin for adjusted mature locations was 19.6 percent, up 1 percent year-over-year.
As for the Fox Restaurant Concepts (FRC) portfolio, a Henry restaurant opened in Phoenix, with strong demand; average weekly sales have exceeded $280,000 in the first four weeks, equaling a $14 million annualized AUV.
Cheesecake finished Q1 with 216 locations. North Italia had 46 stores and Flower Child had 42. There were also 55 units in the FRC group.
The company expects to open as many as 26 restaurants this year, and about 75 percent of that will happen in the second half of the year. That includes six Cheesecake Factories, six to seven North Italias, six to seven Flower Childs and seven FRC restaurants.
