In addition to offering customers three-dozen or so scrumptious cheesecake varieties, California-based Cheesecake Factory delivers upscale casual dining with sizable portions and entrees galore. The fast-growing chain features a menu of more than 200 items, including pizza, pastas, fish, steaks and chops, and salads.

While famous for its exquisite, sugary confections, Cheesecake Factory is also known for ad-plastered menus that display full-page color ads for brands like Bebe and Mercedes-Benz. The restaurant's menu advertising offers local and national advertisers irresistible promotional benefits: huge readership by a captive audience, outstanding demographic selectivity, and great value--at less than a penny per exposure.

Food preparation and advertising are essential ingredients in Cheesecake Factory's retail strategy, but identifying choice locations may be the most critical aspect of its planning. Each year, the company reviews 2,000 potential sites around the U.S.; yet it will launch only 21 new restaurants in 2006. This hyper-selectivity is key to the chain's steady growth, as the results show. The company has yet to close down a location, and two new restaurants open soon in Oklahoma City and Boise.