Cheesecake Factory maintains off-premise sales in Q2 as dining rooms reopenCheesecake Factory maintains off-premise sales in Q2 as dining rooms reopen

The Cheesecake Factory Inc., as it emerges from pandemic dine-in restrictions, held onto off-premise sales into the second quarter, with those making up about a third of the sales mix, the company said in a business update Wednesday.

The Calabasas Hills, Calif.-based casual-dining company, which released a business update ahead of two investor conference presentations, said second-quarter-to-date same-store sales through May 31 increased about 7% over 2019 levels and 196% over the 2020 pandemic base.

“Based on average weekly sales quarter-to-date of approximately $226,500, this equates to approximately $11.8 million on average, per unit on an annualized basis,” the company said in its update.

The Cheesecake Factory said nearly all of the company’s restaurants across its concepts, including 206 Cheesecake Factory units, were operating with reopened indoor dining rooms with limited capacity, based on local mandates and social-distancing protocols.

That company said that, on average, Cheesecake Factory restaurants with reopened dining rooms were operating at about 70% indoor capacity and about 75% total on-premise capacity including patios.

One Cheesecake Factory location is operating an off-premise-only model and two locations across the company’s concepts are closed with plans to reopen next week.

For the first quarter ended March 30, Cheesecake Factory’s net loss was $1.2 million, or 3 cents a share, down from a loss of $136.2 million, or $3.11 a share, in the same period last year. First-quarter revenues rose to $627.4 million from $615.1 million in the prior-year period.

First-quarter same-store sales at The Cheesecake Factory restaurants increased 2.8%. Relative to the first quarter 2019, same-store sales at The Cheesecake Factory restaurants declined 10.4%.

The Cheesecake Factory Inc. owns and operates 299 restaurants throughout the United States and Canada, including The Cheesecake Factory, North Italia and a portfolio of brands within the Fox Restaurant Concepts division, which it acquired in 2019.

The company said one new fast-casual Flower Child location opened in Atlanta in May.

Internationally, 28 Cheesecake Factory restaurants operate under licensing agreements.

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