Brio Tuscan Grille, The Cheesecake Factory Coming to Danbury Fair Mall

When Sherri Hill asked her daughter where she wanted to go for her birthday dinner in Boston, her daughter said, "The Cheesecake Factory."

"She always says 'the Cheesecake Facory,' said Hill, who works in the communications office at Western Connecticut State University.

By late summer, Sherri Hill won't have to drive so far to take her daughter Rebecca to dinner. The Cheesecake Factory will open in the Danbury Fair mall by late summer.

Workers are now preparing the space, "re-demising" it, in the words of Mall Manager Maura Ruby. That word means taking gutted space and shaping it into the right configuration for the new restaurants. The two restaurants will share an outdoor dining area between their two entrances in fair weather.

Filene's closed in 2006, Ruby said, and since then, Dick's Sporting Goods has opened in the space and Forever 21 has opened in the former Filene's space. Once the two restaurants open, there will be about 23,000 square feet left to lease. Ruby said no lease has yet been signed for that left-over space.