Dessert First

Evelyn and David did.

Evelyn lived in Detroit and one day she made a dessert for her husband’s boss. It was a hit. So naturally … Evelyn opened a dessert shop and it was all a massive success. The End. Well, not really. Instead, wanting to raise her family, Evelyn gave up the shop so she could be at home with her kids. But she still made some desserts on the side for local restaurants in her basement kitchen. Well, after about 15 years later, Evelyn and her husband decided to move to Los Angeles … and leveraging her skills and experience they promptly opened a wholesale bakery to sell her desserts directly to local restaurants there. And it did ok. Then 5 years later, Eveyln’s son David opened a tiny sandwich shop that sold her desserts. Things went so well that after another five years they opened a second restaurant … then six years later a big, new third one. Now, still another five years later they went public with hopes of adding 3-4 more locations a year … well you know what happened.

Today, over 70 years after Evelyn made that first dessert for her husband’s boss and 40 years since David opened that first tiny restaurant … the chain they started has over 200 restaurants generating sales of over $2 billion a year … and that includes selling a lot of Evelyn’s famous cheesecake … The Cheesecake Factory.

The Cheesecake Factory is a great idea because persistence and love of what you are doing can carry you a long way.