The Cheesecake Factory to open in Tampa Premium Outlets

The Cheesecake Factory will open a new restaurant in Pasco County later this year.

The popular California eatery’s new location will be in the Tampa Premium Outlets. A spokesperson for the center was not immediately able to say where in the center The Cheesecake Factory would go or an approximate time for when it would open beyond this year.

The Pasco location will be company’s 24th restaurant in the state and its seventh along the Gulf Coast. Of those now open locally, three are in the Tampa Bay market.

The Cheesecake Factory was founded in 1972 and offers about 250 menu items.

While the chain is popular for its menu items, its pop culture street credibility stretches across at least a couple of generations. It was the favored dining spot and workplace for the characters on the sitcom “Big Bang Theory.” And the company’s founder, chair and CEO, David Overton, was a drummer who once shared a bill with Janis Joplin.

Tampa Premium Outlets is a 441,000-square-foot outlet shopping center off of Interstate 75 and State Road 56 in Lutz.

Among the mall’s existing tenants are Marc Jacobs, Coach, J. Crew, Michael Kors and Polo Ralph Lauren inside the center and outparcel tenants BJ's Brewhouse, Longhorn Steakhouse and McDonald's.