Chaos Erupts Over Free Cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory

Free cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory spurs mass chaos

Never underestimate people’s enthusiasm for free food: On Wednesday, the Cheesecake Factory celebrated 40 years in biz by giving away free slices of cheesecake to customers who ordered delivery via DoorDash. A flood of orders resulted in a large crowd of double-parked delivery drivers at a location in Clarendon, Virginia, and police were called in for crowd control. After an apparent fistfight, one driver was taken to the hospital and then charged with disorderly conduct. As one commenter put it, “The veneer of civilization is thin indeed.”

Sorry Oklahoma, no In-N-Out for you

A cruel prank has been played on the city of Tulsa: A sign in an empty lot promising the impending arrival of an In-N-Out Burger, which would have been Oklahoma’s first, turned out to be a hoax. “...While we are always looking for new opportunities and potential locations, we are not currently pursuing anything in Tulsa,” the beloved West Coast burger chain said in a statement.

And in other news...

• One of the hottest baby name trends in 2018 is apparently healthy food, meaning parents are naming their kids things like Kale, Kiwi, Maple, Hazel, and Saffron. What a world. [Quartz]
• Here comes the first beverage designed for gamers, by gamers: MTN DEW AMP Game Fuel contains both caffeine and theanine (“to improve alertness and accuracy”) and the cans feature a “no-slip grip” and resealable lids to prevent spills from interrupting late-night Fortnite marathons. [Foodbeast]
• Good news for legendary cooking tome The Joy of Cooking: Two studies overseen by disgraced Cornell researcher Brian Wansink that claimed the cookbook’s portion sizes and calorie counts had swelled over the years have officially been retracted. Wansink, who’s now had a total of 17 papers retracted, implied that the book was culpable in America’s obesity epidemic. [Retraction Watch via @hels]
• Cool samaritan alert: There’s a dude in Springfield, Tennessee with a Reese’s Cup-themed car who drives around handing out candy to strangers. Hershey’s put up billboards in the area to track him down, and are now plying him with free swag. [The Tennessean]
• Glassdoor’s list of top 100 places to work in 2019 includes In-N-Out (ranked at no. 3) and fast-food chicken strip chain Raising Cane’s (no. 96). [Restaurant Business]
• Salt Fat Acid Heat star and all-around wonderful human Samin Nosrat appeared on the Today show this week to make pesto, making a strong case for using a mortar and pestle rather than a food processor. [Today]