Monday, November 23, 2020

Twitter Thread: Cheesecake Factory is A World of Contradictions


Anyone can tell you that The Cheesecake Factory is a building full of paradoxes. It's like it's telling you with all its heart that it wants to be fancy with all the lighting and the columns, and then you sit down and drink out of a plastic cup. Cheesecake is great, but the place itself really makes you think "how does this place still exist?" Maybe it fits the bill of "a place people can agree to go to." @MaxKreigerVG got extremely deep about America's gaudiest Cheesecake vendor.

1.

Text - max sledroom @MaxKrie... If you want a fully immersive "postmodern design hellscape" themed dining experience I highly recommend dinner at The Cheesecake Factory from a design perspective that place is fuckin wild and I'll talk a little bit about why The

2.

Text - @Max... · 13h Replying to @MaxKriegerVG max sledroom The Cheesecake Factory essentially grew out of a Los Angeles bakery business. Then, in 1992, they brought on hospitality designer Rick McCormack and shit went off the rails We're talking VICTORIAN- EGYPTIAN-ROCOCO OFF THE RAILS O 14 17455 O 5,499

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Text - @Max... · 13h I mean check out this exterior max sledroom greco-roman cornices, seashells above the pseudo-arched doors, topped with a dome airlifted from fucking st. basil's 口口 O 11 17 405 O 4,957

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Text - max sledroom @Max... · 12h v The interior is a world of aesthetic chaos that feels like a mix between a Fry's Electronics, an overgrown Panera, and a laser tag arena. It's / sensational/. Palm trees sit aside 2000's-chic glass lighting fixtures, French limestone floors, mosaics, fresco- like murals... 16 27742 6,450

5.

Text - max sledroom @Max... · 12h v Pseudo-Egyptian faces top columns with hybrid palm frond/ lotus blossom designs and pseudo-heiroglyphics. It's unchecked white exoticism/ orientalism run amok w a huge budget. Some elements like the face's "third eye" and the Sauron- like sconces borderline on occult flavor. O 45 L7719 6,345

6.

Text - TCF blasts you w/ a "luxury dining" aesthetic while cutting some / bizarre/ corners. They serve you water in tankards, seat you in wicker chairs at marble tabletops. Then you realize your tankards are plastic, your wicker is plastic, and your table is vinyl-lined particle board. O 15 27478 O 5,611

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Text - Both ostentatiously gaudy and consistently cheap, from the fake plaster walls to the fake wicker chairs, TCF is almost reminiscent of a theme park. The more you stare at this and see elements like the tacky booth cushions and glass dividers slowly emerge, the more surreal it gets 18 27459 5,106

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Text - max sledroom @Max... 12h The unchecked frenetic design doesn't stop there. Look at the goddamn menu. Or should I say FOUR MENUS - menu, "skinnylicious", drinks, cheesecakes (not desserts, that's different!) It is the most intentionally obtuse culinary document I've ever seen. It wants to DISORIENT YOU Csecake Factory More than 10 legendary Monday - Friday 4:00 p.m.- 6:00 p.m. in Our Bar APECIALTY COCKYAILS Moror S.0 LONG hLAND IC TAT S00 27621 O 5,478 32

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Text - max sledroom @Max... · 12h v -"Quick Bites" -Appetizers -Glamburgers -Specialties -Pasta -Sandwiches -Steaks/Chops/Fish/Seafood -Pizza -"Super Foods" -"Skinnylicious" (???) are all separate sections. there is no rhyme or reason to them. this menu is not your friend. it is actively trying to mislead you. 20 27451 O 6,219

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Text - mid-menu advertisements for the RESTAURANT YOU HAVE ALREADY CHOSEN TO DINE AT are frequent and deliberately make you lose track of your spot here's one, w/ an entire page of flavor text this thing feels like a god damn playbill. all the tcf's a stage, and we are but its players welcomet More than 10 legendary INE FRINT CONTMINS Ot r cINMIMING Q 15 27771 8,200

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Text - @Max... · 12h v after wandering the menu a while, helplessly, you order and the food arrives. it's good. not bad, not great, but good. better than an applebee's, better than a friday's. i wanted to say i hated it, but in truth, i couldn't. that was probably the most disappointing part of all. max sledroom O 12 27 252 O 4,461

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Text - @Max... · 12h v And then, at the end of it all, in a cold lonely counter cooler, the max sledroom cheesecake. my location placed it near the lobby/exit, far from the dining area. alone. The namesake dish feels utterly inconsequential by the time you reach it. Perhaps it meant something once.

13.

Text - max sledroom @MaxK... · 11h v To conclude: There is nothing more quintessentially "American capitalism" in flavor than The Cheesecake Factory Wealth run wild. Chaotic visual fantasies realized w no aesthetic discipline. An obsession with appearance of luxury. Gross excess that excels at feigning its quality Q71 273,253 15.3K

14.

Text - @MaxK... · 11h It feels like a relic of another era, max sledroom one where such a vision was sold to the American public as a utopian concept. It, like the brief period of neoliberalistic prosperity that made it possible, is a fever dream made manifest. Enjoy it while you can. 55 17479 5,980 max sledroom @MaxK... · 11h v wow uh this blew up huh 32 27 28 2,564

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