Cheesecake Factory Opens at Bradley Fair Sept. 29: 290+ Wichita Jobs
Published: September 14, 2026 | By LocalJobPage Team
WICHITA, KS — The sign went up on Rock Road this summer, and east-siders have been driving past it ever since, waiting. Now there is a date. The Cheesecake Factory opens its first Wichita restaurant at Bradley Fair on Tuesday, September 29, and the company says it needs more than 290 people to run it.
That is a lot of paychecks for one address, and applications are already open.
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📍 At a Glance
| Business | The Cheesecake Factory |
| Opens | Tuesday, September 29, 2026, at 11:30 a.m. |
| Address | 2020 N. Rock Road, Bradley Fair, Wichita, KS |
| Site | Rebuilt on the pad that held Outback Steakhouse |
| Concept | Full-service restaurant and bakery, 250-plus menu items, 30-plus cheesecakes |
| New jobs | More than 290 |
| Industry | Food service and hospitality |
| How to apply | cakecareers.com/wichita |
💼 The Jobs: Nearly 300 of Them, Front and Back of House
The company listed the roles it is filling when it announced the date: servers, hosts, bartenders, line cooks, prep cooks, bussers, cashiers, dishwashers, and dessert finishers and baristas. That is a full build of both sides of the house, not a handful of openings sprinkled on top of an existing crew.
It matters because an opening team hires differently. A restaurant already running replaces one server at a time and can hold out for five years of fine-dining experience. A restaurant staffing from zero, two weeks before it unlocks the doors, is filling a schedule. If you have solid experience and clean availability, this is the moment in the building's life when your odds are best.
Bradley Fair also sits on one of the busier employment corners in the metro. Rock Road between 21st and Central runs a dense strip of retail and restaurant work. If this one does not land for you, you are still standing in the right zip code.
⚠️ Read This Before You Apply
A few honest notes, because the gap between what has been announced and what people assume is where wasted trips happen.
- No public job fair or walk-in hiring event has been announced. The only application channel the company has named is its careers site. Do not drive to Bradley Fair expecting a folding table and a clipboard.
- The building is not open yet. There is no manager on site to hand a resume to. The pad was redeveloped from the old Outback footprint, and the restaurant does not serve its first guest until September 29.
- The 290-plus figure is the staffing target for the location, as the company stated it. No one has published how many of those seats are already spoken for, and hiring for an opening usually runs in waves rather than all at once. Apply early rather than assuming there is a long runway.
- Pay has not been published for the Wichita restaurant. Anyone quoting you a specific hourly rate for these jobs is guessing.
💵 What Restaurant Work Pays Around Wichita
Since the company has not posted wage ranges, the useful benchmark is the local market. The Bureau of Labor Statistics put the mean hourly wage for food preparation and serving occupations in the Wichita metro at $15.46 as of May 2025, against $17.86 nationally. Tipped roles in a high-volume, full-service dining room typically land above that group average, but the restaurant has published nothing specific, so treat the market figure as context and ask about pay in the interview rather than assuming.
On the legal floor: Kansas sets its minimum wage at the federal $7.25, with a tipped cash wage of $2.13 and a requirement that the employer make up the difference if tips fall short. Kansas also bars cities and counties from setting their own wage floors, so Wichita, Derby, Andover and Park City all sit at the same number. That floor is not a going rate. Competition in food service pushed real starting pay well above it here, which is why the market average runs roughly double the legal minimum.
🔎 Where to Aim for Restaurant Work Right Now
Whether or not Bradley Fair works out, fall is a good window for food service hiring across the metro as operators staff up ahead of the holidays. Cast wide, apply to several at once, and keep your availability honest.
Start here:
- Server jobs in Wichita
- Line cook jobs in Wichita
- Prep cook jobs in Wichita
- Bartender jobs in Wichita
- Host and hostess jobs in Wichita
- Dishwasher jobs in Wichita
- Barista jobs in Wichita
- Restaurant manager jobs in Wichita
- Cheesecake Factory jobs in Wichita
- All restaurant jobs in Wichita
📋 How to Show Up Ready
Opening-team hiring moves fast, so the applications that get read are the ones that are easy to say yes to.
- Name the shifts you can actually work. Nights and weekends carry the most weight at a restaurant of this size. Vague availability reads as a maybe.
- Put volume on your resume, not just the job title. "Served a 14-table section on weekend dinner turns" tells a hiring manager more than "server, two years."
- Apply for the role you can start in, not only the one you want. Back-of-house openings on a new crew often move to better stations within months.
Your Next Shift Starts With an Application
The Cheesecake Factory application lives on the company's own careers page at cakecareers.com/wichita. While you are at it, set yourself up to catch everything else opening across the metro this fall: create a free LocalJobPage account and browse every Wichita job on the board in one place.
Employers: hiring a fall crew of your own? Post your openings on LocalJobPage and reach Wichita job seekers who are already looking.
Related Reading
- Wichita Restaurant Jobs 2026: Who's Hiring in Food Service Now
- Fall 2026 Wichita Job Fairs and Hiring Events: Your Complete Guide
- Wichita Entry-Level Jobs 2026: 7 Employers Hiring Now
- Mokas Coffee Keeps Growing in Wichita, Bringing New Cafe Jobs
- Wichita Retail Jobs 2026: Who's Hiring Across the Metro Now
Frequently Asked Questions
When does the Cheesecake Factory open in Wichita?
Tuesday, September 29, 2026, at 11:30 a.m., at Bradley Fair on North Rock Road. It is the chain's first Wichita location.
How many people is it hiring?
More than 290, across servers, hosts, bartenders, line and prep cooks, bussers, cashiers, dishwashers, and dessert finishers and baristas.
How do I apply?
Through the company's careers site at cakecareers.com/wichita. Applications opened in July and no separate walk-in hiring event has been announced.
Where exactly is it?
2020 N. Rock Road, in the Bradley Fair center on Wichita's east side, on the pad that previously held Outback Steakhouse.
What does the job pay?
The company has not published wage ranges for the Wichita restaurant. For context, the Bureau of Labor Statistics put the Wichita metro mean for food preparation and serving occupations at $15.46 an hour in May 2025. Ask for specifics in your interview.
Do I need restaurant experience?
The company has not stated experience requirements. Opening crews usually mix entry-level roles such as busser, dishwasher and host with experienced server and cook hires, so apply for what fits.
Bradley Fair has been the east side's front porch for a long time, and it does not add 290 jobs at one address very often. If you have been circling that corner of Rock and 21st looking for a way in, the window is open right now, and it closes when the dining room fills up on the 29th.