Sunday, October 25, 2026

The REAL Cheesecake Factory*

This is actually a condescending view of working-class people. I grew up in a working-class immigrant family and we ate at Red Lobster and The Cheesecake Factory for "fancy nights out." But even we understood that the White House should not look like the inside of a Red Lobster. Working-class people are not culturally illiterate just because their experiences are shaped by their limited means.
(Trump lives at his own resort, and has probably never been in a Cheesecake Factory in his life. And I notice nobody is picking up the Saddam Hussein side of Obama’s comment.) *Full disclosure: I have never been to a Cheesecake Factory, so I don’t have a dog in this fight. If I did have a dog, I’d just wonder why I didn’t get another cat. Besides, Obama may well have been using “cheesecake” as a derogatory aesthetic term, not the restaurant chain. Anyway, it was a damned good line. “Listen to yourself.” I have been to a Rainforest Cafe. Once. For my daughter, when she was young enough to enjoy it. Never again. Way too expensive. And crappy food.
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2 comments:

  1. The Thought Criminal12:53 PM

    I was accused of being a snob because I said I hadn't been in a restaurant in several decades. Largely because I can't afford it and I can cook myself. I remember once when I was out with some older friends (I was in my 20s and about as poor as a music major would be). One of them said he was buying. Already a vegetarian what I ordered ended up being the cheapest thing on the menu. He asked me what kind of a date I was. I said, "A cheap one."
    It's funny how such things as snark about those who eat at mid-level restaurants replaces morality for so many. And now those mid-level ones are pretty expensive.

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    1. Rmj2:17 PM

      I think it’s all deflection from Obama’s statement that the WH now looks like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory. Nobody wants to challenge the truth of that.

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