In short, it's about making an experience that draws people in who are looking for the comfort/familiarity/ease of a chain, while not just relying on that. The Cheesecake Factory is an above-average restaurant masquerading as a Sysco-food-reheating-service.
The very large menu is a feature--something for everyone--that would be a bug if a lot of other restaurants tried it because the execution is often so dismal once a particular level of size or growth (or both) is reached.
Nothing else is close to vegan, unless you're into ordering Chicken Lettuce Wraps without Chicken.
“there are 52 vegetarian options at the Cheesecake Factory, not including a number of the tasty cheesecakes!” https://dietmenus.com/restaurant/the-cheesecake-factory/vege...
Vegan is significantly more strict but “there are 9 vegan options at the Cheesecake Factory, plus a handful of other dishes that can be customized to make it vegan.” https://dietmenus.com/restaurant/the-cheesecake-factory/vega...
Vegetarian bumps that to 52 menu items.
It also does limit the choice of dressing, for example anything with mayo is off limits.
They just haven't figured out how to keep vegans from spoiling in a commercial kitchen yet. They're high maintenance, a bit too big for the freezer, and the vacuum packer tends to deprive them of oxygen.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/when-herbivores-ar...
Horses sometimes eat chickens too.
Which is an actual item on the menu
https://www.thecheesecakefactory.com/menu/appetizers/thai-le...
> Proteins, sauces, veggies, the dressings that go in their gigantic salads, the chicken marsala and mushrooms — it’s cooked on the spot. If there’s any part of the Cheesecake Factory that resembles an industrial machine, it’s the multiple stations and line cooks needed to create handmade food for every meal. ...
> “Their quality, their execution, and consistency across the country — it is always the same. And that’s a compliment! That’s impeccable,” pastry chef and Food Network star Young says, “The sauces, the dressings, everything is made in-house. That level of consistency doesn’t happen anywhere else.”
This is in the last section, titled "The Cheesecake Factory is a marvel." That section is the most interesting part, because it talks about the execution required to make a large amount of a wide variety of food from scratch, at scale, consistently.
[0] https://aviyer2010.com/2012/09/05/the-cheesecake-factory-and... [1] https://www.upkeep.com/learning/how-to-calculate-restaurant-...