By Randy Tucker
Enquirer staff writer

Some of the nation's biggest casual dining chains - which have ignored the local market for years - are now popping up all over town in malls and strip centers or in their own spaces.

The list includes:

• The Cheesecake Factory at Kenwood Towne Centre.

• Maggiano's Little Italy at Kenwood Towne Centre.

• Bonefish Grill at Hyde Park Center and in Crescent Springs.

• IHOP at the Center of Cincinnati in Oakley, plus Milford, Anderson Township and Forest Park. A dozen more stores are planned later.

• Bravo! Cucina Italiano at The Streets of West Chester and Symmes Township.

The Cheesecake Factory in Kenwood Towne Centre. (Enquirer photo/MEGGAN BOOKER)

Meanwhile, established chains such as Romano's Macaroni Grill and Carrabba's Italian Grill have expanded and opened new locations.

"This is a great food town,'' said Howard Gordon, a spokesman for The Cheesecake Factory.

One of the nation's most successful casual dining chains, it has a massive menu that caters to all types of diners.

"It's time we came to Cincinnati. We're really happy to have found such a good location," he said.

The Cheesecake Factory opened earlier this summer at Kenwood Towne Centre in the new open-air "streetscape" addition on the south side of the Sycamore Township mall.

Gordon and other new-to-the-market restaurant operators said they had been eyeballing the Greater Cincinnati market for the past several years because of the explosive growth in office, residential and, particularly, retail development.

The area has seen more retail development in the past two years than in all of the past decade.

This is highlighted by the renovations at Kenwood, the opening of new properties such as Deerfield Towne Centre in Mason and Cincinnati Mills in Forest Park - and the start of construction on the Crestview Hills Town Center in Northern Kentucky.

That retail development indicates growth in higher-income households - a major prerequisite for The Cheesecake Factory and other casual dining chains, which count on patrons visiting their restaurants several times a week and spending anywhere from $15 to $25 a plate.

"We're looking for X amount of office, residential and retail space right on top of each other in the same little 5-mile radius," said Darrell Hooker, general manager at Maggiano's, which plans to open next door to The Cheesecake Factory on Sept. 16. "Believe it or not, there aren't a whole lot of cities in the country that have that all in one place. Cincinnati does."

Hooker declined to be specific about Maggiano's market requirements. But he noted that many of Maggiano's restaurants are located in the same malls as The Cheesecake Factory, which looks to open in areas with a minimum population of at least 250,000 people with an average household income of $65,000 within a 5-mile radius.

Hooker said Maggiano's picked Cincinnati as the location for its 30th store primarily because of the heavy retail traffic in the area and desirable demographics.

Restaurant-goers such as Kenwood resident Paul Aldy and his wife, Helen, are prime examples.

The baby-boomer couple with a combined income exceeding $100,000 said they eat out at least three times a week - sometimes more.

"Who has time to cook anymore?'' asked Helen, while she and her husband were waiting in line outside The Cheesecake Factory last weekend. "Even if we did have time to cook, we both work and we're usually dead tired by the time we get home. Cooking is a luxury.''

The new restaurants coming to Greater Cincinnati and expanding across the country certainly have the wind at their backs, according to the National Restaurant Association, which reports that the number of people eating out has risen every year since 1990.

And even with such negative factors as higher unemployment, slower economic growth and increased dieting, the nation's largest restaurant trade association expects the casual dining sector's revenue to grow by 7 percent this year - thanks in large part to time-pressed consumers like the Aldys, who have little time to cook but still want to eat well.

Experts say the sector's resilience can also be attributed to the decline in the price difference between dining out and cooking at home.

"Better-quality casual restaurants have become America's dining room, primarily because they've become more affordable,'' Robert Derrington, a food industry analyst at SunTrust Equitable Securities wrote in a recent report.

According to the report, it cost 90 percent more in 1990 to go out to eat than to cook for yourself.Today, that premium is down to 25 percent.

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E-mail rtucker@enquirer.com