| BJ's Restaurants, Inc. | |
| Logo Upright: | 0.4 |
| Former Name: | BJ's Chicago Pizzeria |
| Type: | Public |
| Traded As: | NASDAQ: S&P 600 component |
| Genre: | Casual dining |
| Foundation: | , in Santa Ana, California, US |
| Hq Location City: | Huntington Beach, California |
| Hq Location Country: | US |
| Locations: | 215 (2022) |
| Key People: | Greg Levin (CEO and president) |
| Area Served: | United States |
| Products: | American food |
| Services: | Catering |
| Num Employees: | 23,000 (2021) |
| Revenue: | 1.195 billion (2021)[1] |
| Net Income: | 52.882 million (2021)[2] |
| Operating Income: | 79.452 million (2021)[3] |
| Assets: | US$1.059 billion (FY 2021)[4] |
| Equity: | US$353.788 million (FY 2021)[5] |
BJ's Restaurants, Inc. is an American restaurant chain, headquartered in Huntington Beach, California.[6] [7] The chain operates under the names BJ's Restaurant & Brewery, BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse, BJ's Grill, and BJ's Pizza & Grill.
BJ's was founded in 1978 by Jim Kozen and Leonard Allenstein.[8] It first opened in Santa Ana, California, as BJ's Chicago Pizzeria.[9] The original name was BJ Grunts, but due to a federal trademark conflict with RJ Grunts, a Chicago-based hamburger restaurant, the name was changed.[10] Shortly after the opening of the first restaurant, Mike Phillips and Bill Cunningham bought 50% of the company for $14,000. Kozen and Allenstein left the group after the opening of the seventh store.[11] [12] Phillips and Cunningham sold the company to their accountants Paul Motenko and Jerry Hennessy in 1991.[13]
By 1996, seven restaurants had opened between San Diego and Los Angeles. Originally known as Chicago Pizza, the company went public in 1996, raising $9.4 million.[14] The company then bought 26 Pietro's Pizza restaurants in March 1996 in a $2.8 million deal in cash and assumed debt, but then sold off seven of the locations with plans to convert the remaining Pietro's to what was then BJ's Pizza.[14] During the same year, the company opened a microbrewery at its Brea restaurant.[15]
Between 2010 and 2011, the National Retail Federation named it one of the 10 fastest-growing restaurants in the US based on year-over-year sales.[16]
In 2013, BJ's produced a combined total of 60,000 barrels annually at their 11 brewery restaurants to serve their chain of 136 restaurants in 15 states.[17] In 2010, the company's BJ's Hefelightzen was awarded a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival.[18] In 2021, Greg Levin was appointed to CEO.[19], BJ's operated 215 restaurants in 29 states.[20]
BJ's menu features pizza, beers, appetizers, entrees, pastas, sandwiches, salads, and desserts (including the signature Pizookie).[21] Some locations feature microbreweries that supply beer to other locations in the chain.[7]
At the 2006 Great American Beer Festival, BJ's Big Fish IPA achieved a gold medal within the American-style Strong Pale Ale classification. Its design draws inspiration from the Piranha Pale Ale, which secured a silver medal in 2002. In a similar vein, BJ's Jeremiah Red earned a silver medal in the strong ales category during the same festival in 1996. The Belgian-style wheat beer from BJ's has been honored with a Gold Medal by the North American Beer Awards.