the cheesecake factory

if you know me at all, you know i have a thing about the cheesecake factory. it's not that i hate it, per se, just that i don't understand the hype. the food is decent, but it's still chain food which doesn't explain why people are willing to wait an hour (or more!) to eat there. if you went to applebees and the hostess said it was an hour wait, would you? probably not. there's always ruby tuesdays or tgi fridays or some other place with mediocre food down the street where there isn't a wait.

so why the fuss over the cheesecake factory???

jeff and i went last night. we have a new one at the mall (of course) and i've avoided it like the plague. but last night was date night and it was raining and chilly and jeff and i wanted some comfort food as a break from our recent foray into vegetarian-ism (is that a word? in any case, that's a whole 'nother post).

of course there was a 45 minute wait so we sat at the bar and had a drink. and you know what? it was really nice. it was obscenely crowded by an ecletic mix of people but it was really nice just to sit at the bar and talk with my husband instead of rushing in and out of a restaurant and then staring at each other in the parking lot saying "well now what do we do?"

so for anyone who has ever heard me badmouth the cheesecake factory, i stand corrected. i still think the food is mediocre (it's not bad, it's just not noteworthy), but it was a nice place for date night.

(oh - i have to share this: as we were sitting at the bar, a couple came up beside us to order drinks. they looked at the drink menu and then asked the bartender for "one of those 'mo-jah-toe' things." the bartender looked confused so they showed him the menu and he said "oh, a mojito." jeff and i just poked each other and giggled silently. mo-jah-toe. lol. isn't that petty and small of us to laugh?) :)