The Cheesecake Factory to open restaurant at Tacoma Mall

Its spiral-bound menu is long enough to be called a tome.

Its cheesecake slices can best be described as gluttonesque. The combined calorie count of a three-course meal could sustain a family of four. For three days.

The South Sound is getting its first Cheesecake Factory, and it will be at the Tacoma Mall.

The company’s senior director of public relations, Alethea Rowe, confirmed Thursday, “The Cheesecake Factory is scheduled to open this winter.”

She had no other information to share other than that the restaurant would have a design and decor similar to the chain’s other restaurants.

That means a menu with a broad reach, from regional American to mishmash Asian fusion. The menu lists pizza, pasta, sandwiches and burgers (and lots more — 200-plus items at some locations). And, of course, cheesecake. Lots of cheesecake that’s typically displayed in a bakery case at the front of the restaurant, strategically placed like some kind of lobster tank for sugar fiends.

In Western Washington, Cheesecake Factory restaurants operate in Southcenter, Bellevue and Seattle.

Tacoma Mall Director of Marketing Sarah Bonds said the restaurant will open in a space that previously held a Coldwater Creek store. She said it will also occupy the former Sleep Number store behind the restaurant. The Sleep Number store, Bonds said, moved to the Bose store, which left the mall.

The space is expected to be more than 9,000 square feet.

Nearby is H&M, which is on the south side of the mall near other restaurants, including BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse, Mod Pizza and Blazing Onion Burgers, Brews and Spirits.

Shirley Schultz, a principal planner with the city of Tacoma, said the company has had its pre-application meeting with the city, the next step is for the company to pursue its construction permit.

This story was originally published June 23, 2016 at 2:30 PM with the headline "The Cheesecake Factory to open restaurant at Tacoma Mall."