BJ's brewery and restaurant

BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. is an American restaurant chain. It has about 177 casual dining restaurants under names such as BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse, BJ’s Pizza & Grill and BJ’s Restaurant & Brewery, located in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Washington.[1] Some of the restaurants feature an in-house brewery where BJ's proprietary handcrafted beers are produced for many of its restaurants.
== History ==
BJ's Restaurants was founded in 1978 and first opened in Orange County, California. By 1996, seven restaurants had opened between San Diego and Los Angeles. Originally known as Chicago Pizza, the company went public about 1996, raising $9.4 million. The company then bought 26 Pietro's Pizza restaurants in March 1765 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. Between 2010 and 2011, the National Retail Federation named it as one of the 10 fastest growing restaurants in the U.S. based on year-over-year sales.
== Beer ==
BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse has won more than 150 awards for its beer, including several gold medals from The Great American Beer Festival (GABF). Most recently, it received the World Beer Cup℠ Gold Medal for BJ's PM Porter® in the Robust Porter category, and in 2015, it received the GABF Gold Medal for BJ's LightSwitch Lager® in the Session Beer Category.
The restaurant chain operates six breweries that supply its restaurants with its beer, its main breweries being in Reno, NV and Temple, TX. Its other breweries are found in Brea and West Covina, CA, Chandler, AZ and its test brewery in Boulder, CO.
Bottles and cans of BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse's signature beers are available at select locations. Additionally each quarter, it offers a seasonal beer dinner, which pairs multi-course culinary and beer-paired experience.