To the surprise of pretty much no-one (at least anyone who'd ever dined there), America's Cheesecake Cafe on US95 & Canfield has swept it's last graham cracker crumb into the bus tub of death. Perhaps they were spreading themselves a bit thin with their 3,019 menu items but nothing really worth ordering. In fairness, the cheesecake I had there a few birthdays ago wasn't bad, but I've had better from a grocery store deli. My mother's salad was sad and withery and soaked in some kind of cruel Asian dressing and our slow waiter was visibly and totally baked. I covered the whole tragic affair in
one of the first restaurant reviews I ever wrote which was "recycled" and printed in the Spokesman-Review last summer. Sorry folks, didn't mean to jinx you. Most humiliatingly, the CDA Press stomped on the Cheesecake Cafe's fresh corpse today, albeit with a really great headline
(full article).
A Boise franchise planned for 2006 never was built, nor were any others.
Many of the employees who managed the restaurant when it opened were no longer employed there.
"The food had gone downhill," said Jody Paul of Hayden, who said she went in on Jan. 20 on her first wedding anniversary, after eating there on her wedding day. "I wasn't surprised. The place was pretty empty."
Commentators on Huckleberries Online were quick to agree:
"I am not surprised by the Cheesecake Cafe's closure. I went there when they first opened, with my wife and a friend. They had over 100 menu items, but no real specialty. I had an awful calzone. None of us were impressed with our food. It looked to me like they decided to do 150 things badly rather than 15 things well" - Big Mac
"I gave it chances....but it didn't deserve the third or fourth chance." - JIMMYMAC
The building itself is brand spanking new and it's a great space in a great location. Let's turn it into a throbbing Disco!