this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . july 2010 learn how and when to remove this template message not to be confused with bj s wholesale club . bj s restaurant & brewhouse type public traded as nasdaq bjri industry alcoholic beverage founded 1978 headquarters huntington beach california products beer website www.bjsrestaurants.com 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 properietary handcrafted beers are produced for many of its restaurants . 1 contents 1 history 2 beer 3 see also 4 references 5 external links history edit the bj s in hillsboro oregon 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 . 2 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 . 2 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 . 3 beer edit 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 4 and in 2015 it received the gabf gold medal for bj s lightswitch lager in the session beer category . 5 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. 6 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 . 6 see also edit beer in the united states references edit a b investor relations bj s restaurant and brewhouse . investors.bjsrestaurants.com . retrieved 2016 05 12 . a b rose michael november 17 1996 . bj s pizza to revamp pietro s with breweries remodeling . portland business journal . retrieved 15 march 2013 . luna nancy august 2 2012 . bj s among fastest growing chains . the orange county register . award winners world beer cup . world beer cup . retrieved 2016 05 12 . awards and accolades bj s restaurant and brewhouse . www.bjsrestaurants.com . retrieved 2016 05 12 . a b corporate profile bj s restaurant and brewhouse . investors.bjsrestaurants.com . retrieved 2016 05 12 . external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to bj s restaurant & brewhouse . official website coordinates 33 44 05 n 117 59 42 w 33.734774 n 117.995082 w 33.734774 ; 117.995082 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title bj % 27s restaurant % 26 brewhouse & oldid 736612836 categories 1978 establishments in californiabeer in californiabeer brewing companies based in californiacompanies listed on nasdaqrestaurants established in 1978restaurant chains in the united stateshidden categories articles needing additional references from july 2010all articles needing additional referencescommons category with page title different than on wikidatacoordinates not on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages add links this page was last modified on 28 august 2016 at 17 55 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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