Cheesecake Factory, similar to Costco, is the ultimate example of how you have to know the rules to break the rules. The entire company is fascinating because they holistically designed an entire system where every single part of it works in concert to deliver their unique experience.

Nobody can really copy them because you can’t do it unless you start from a truly ground up perspective. Others who seem superficially similar on the surface simply can’t deliver a comparable experience because of this.

Is there any good public writing going into detail about this? Lots has been written on how Costco is Costco but all my info on CCF has been from geeking out with insiders who are also passionate about system design.