Do they serve the drinks with straws at the Cheesecake Factory? I hope so, because the GOP is grasping at them in its bid to stave off disaster.
You might have heard that Barack Obama joked the other night about Donald Trump’s taste in decor – he said the White House looks like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory. MAGAts jumped all over it, but not because he compared Trump to Saddam. No, they’re gleefully accusing Democrats of being elitist for sneering at a restaurant chain that started in Beverly Hills but has lots of locations in those heartland states of … (checks notes)…Texas and Florida. Yup, MAGAland. Obama’s wisecrack fed into conservatives’ ever-sensition persecution complex.
This “elitism” bullshit has been a rich lode for the GOP before – they tried to make hay 20 years ago when Obama mentioned arugula, and John Kerry caught shit for “looking French.” It’s actually reverse snobbery. Treasury secretary Scott Bessent, he of the $520 million net worth, made a point of appearing at a Cheesecake Factory, as if that’s his regular hang. Granted, it would be a step up for our fat slob president, whose idea of a fancy meal is a KFC Famous Bowl.
I’ve never been to a Cheesecake Factory. There’s one in the Christiana Mall, but I have a firm rule against eating anyplace that has “factory” in its name, and I don’t understand why they’d call themselves that when most of their food is made from scratch.
Their selling point is a voluminous menu from a wide range of ethnic cuisines, so there’s something for everyone’s taste. The food comes in large portions that attract criticism for containing too much fat and sodium and too many calories (there’s a shrimp and pasta entree that clocks in at a staggering 3,700). But even non-fans concede that, while it’s a little more expensive, the food is a step or two up from casual chains like Applebee’s and Olive Garden.
You can tell the restaurant is an American institution by its pop culture presence. “The Big Bang Theory” had its aspiring actress character work in a Cheesecake Factory, and it’s turned up in a few songs, notably a single by Drake in which he upbraids his girlfriend for fighting with him in one.
This track that Immaterialize, a dream-pop duo out of Chicago, released last year doesn’t seem to have a lot to do with the restaurant lyrically, but the video contains footage from inside one of their locations. I don’t see much gold embellishment – I guess that’s where Saddam Hussein comes in – but it gives hints of why one architecture critic characterized it as “a post-modern hellscape.”
