Laid off from The Cheesecake Factory.

What The Cheesecake Factory layoffs have meant for employees

Nearly everyone The Cheesecake Factory employs works in a restaurant, by the count in its fiscal 2025 10-K, and the cuts on record since the pandemic have come as closings. Stamford's 2020 closing notice covered workers from cooks to servers to bartenders, and several of the restaurants given closing dates in 2025 and 2026 had been part of their neighborhoods for decades. If you worked at one of them, losing it can feel like losing a place along with the paycheck, and that's a fair thing to feel.

The Seattle decision followed "extensive review and analysis," a spokesperson told KOMO News, and the company's statements on Baltimore and Washington, carried by FOX45 and FOX 5 DC, used the same phrase. Local reporting filled in the surroundings. The Baltimore report set the Inner Harbor closing beside the redevelopment of Harborplace and quoted a Towson University economist who called it inevitable, Spectrum News noted the Chesterfield restaurant was one of the few remaining anchor tenants at a mall slated for redevelopment, and Chron noted that Eataly was set to start building its Houston location around the time Grand Lux was closing. If you're wondering why your restaurant was chosen, those observations come from reporters and an economist and don't establish the company's reason, while the company's own phrase describes how it decided.

Each of those statements also offered a way to keep working. Seattle staff were offered help transferring, and in Houston the statement said transfers could go to the company's other concepts in the area. A transfer can still change the job in ways that matter, and for Seattle the other locations KOMO listed were in Tacoma, Bellevue, Tukwila and Lynnwood, which could add a long drive depending on where you live. If a move is on the table for you, you can ask which location, which shifts and what hourly pay come with it, and whether saying no affects anything else you're due.

A closing that reaches a state labor office can bring some help with it. Tennessee's memo on the Memphis closing said the area's rapid response team was alerted so it could coordinate services with the company and the workers, with the local workforce board overseeing follow-up Rapid Response and Dislocated Worker services. If you were part of a closing, you can ask your state's workforce office whether a rapid response team was assigned to it and what it offers.

The 2020 furloughs show how a pause can turn permanent at this company. A majority of furloughed staff were called back as dining rooms reopened, the company's August 2020 8-K said, but in Stamford, where the restaurant was set to close for good, the furlough became a permanent layoff, the Hartford Business Journal reported. At the corporate support center and in bakery administration, the March 2020 8-K shows the cut came as graduated pay reductions, and the August filing said pay below the executive level was being restored. If you're ever furloughed rather than laid off, it's worth asking in writing how long your benefits continue and what happens to your job if your location doesn't reopen.

Restaurant closings have reached brands that don't carry the company's name, from Grand Lux Cafe, a spinoff of the namesake restaurants, to the Fox Restaurant Concepts places, one of which was among the four early-2026 closings in the company's fourth-quarter results. FRC's headquarters staff count in the company's own headcount. If you worked under one of those names, you can search our WARN tracker for The Cheesecake Factory, Grand Lux or Fox Restaurant Concepts and then match the city and date. For the January 2026 closings, our pages on Maryland, D.C. and Texas unemployment benefits cover filing in each, and Washington's covers the Seattle closing.

A sourced history of The Cheesecake Factory layoffs

• January 2026, closings in Baltimore, Washington and Houston

  Baltimore's Inner Harbor, about 115 jobs on a December 4 notice reported by FOX45, set January 24 as its last day. So did Washington's Chevy Chase restaurant after 34 years, per FOX 5 DC, and Houston's Grand Lux Cafe, open since 2004, per Chron. Both company statements offered staff transfers.

• May 2025, downtown Seattle restaurant's last day after 23 years

  The Pike Street restaurant set May 4 as its last day, and Washington's filing in our tracker counts 119 jobs. The restaurant told KOMO News it was helping Seattle staff transfer to other locations.

• June 2024, Memphis and Chesterfield restaurants given closing dates

  Tennessee's labor department logged 154 affected workers at the Memphis restaurant, set to close July 14, and a company letter set the Chesterfield Mall closing in Missouri for August 18, affecting about 101 employees, Spectrum News reported.

• August 2020, a majority of furloughed staff called back

  With dine-in service reopening in phases, a majority of furloughed staff had been called back, the company reported in an August Form 8-K. It had also let about 175 employees go over the pandemic's toll and two restaurant closings.

• June 2020, Stamford, Connecticut restaurant set to close

  A notice dated June 26 turned the March 17 furloughs of 104 cooks, servers, bartenders and others into permanent layoffs at the August 1 closing, citing the pandemic's shutdown orders, the Hartford Business Journal reported.

• March 2020, about 41,000 hourly staff furloughed

  With dine-in service curtailed, the company furloughed hourly staff, whose benefits eligibility and insurance were to last until June 1, with a daily meal from their restaurant, its March 2020 8-K said. Corporate and bakery administration pay was cut 10% to 20%.

What to do if you're laid off from The Cheesecake Factory

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. The Cheesecake Factory's biggest hubs: California, Maryland, Texas, Washington. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
• Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what The Cheesecake Factory's hub states run: California, Maryland, Texas, Washington, and every other state is here.
• Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
• Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
• Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.