4 reasons The Cheesecake Factory is crushing the competition

The Cheesecake Factory's business is on fire.

The brand has the best traffic in the casual dining sector, according to a recent report by Morgan Stanley.

And restaurants are ridiculously profitable: the average Cheesecake Factory location sells $10.5 million in food each year, among the highest volumes in the industry.

Here are few reasons the Cheesecake Factory is beating everyone else in the industry.

1. Choosy expansion plan

The Cheesecake Factory has 177 locations, and eventually wants to expand to 300.

But the company is very selective about where it opens, performing exhausting research to find only "A-plus" sites, CEO David Overton told investors.

"The number of openings each year is governed by the availability of premier sites not by capital or infrastructure constraints," Overton said.

Being careful about where it expands has helped the company be successful.

2. Great quality

Basically all of the Cheesecake Factory's food is made from scratch, The New Yorker reported in 2012.

Author Atul Gawande called the food "delicious."

"Nothing smacked of mass production," Gawande wrote. "My beets were crisp and fresh, the hummus creamy, the salmon like butter in my mouth. No doubt everything we ordered was sweeter, fattier, and bigger than it had to be."

The high quality of the food keeps today's choosy customers coming back.

The only thing not homemade is the cheesecake, which comes from an actual factory in California.

3. Mass appeal

The Cheesecake Factory is appealing to families because there's something for everyone.

The New Yorker piece notes that the Cheesecake Factory's huge menu, which includes seafood, pasta, burgers, and more, appeals to a broad audience.

The brand has pinpointed what customers want and know how to make them happy.

4. Smart operations

The Cheesecake Factory's kitchen is "laid out like a manufacturing facility," according to the New Yorker.

The brand lets prep cooks hand-chop veggies, meat, and seasonings. The actual dishes are prepared by cooks.

This operations system helps the company prepare food fresh and get dishes out faster.

The chain also uses data analytics to predict what customers will order, the New Yorker reports.

This means the company uses nearly 98% of the food it buys.