When we were down in the Orlando area for a trade show earlier this year, my colleague John and I had finished up the day and were looking for a place to lounge out and have a couple drinks and some food. I found that there was a BJ's Brewhouse not far from the hotel and we decided to head there for dinner.
This is not the first time I've been to a BJ's Brewhouse - the first time was when we were in Boulder on a day trip during a trade show in Denver about 8 years ago. (Click here to see that entry.) At that time, there were 66 BJ's Brewhouse locations in 11 states. Today, there are 150 BJ's Brewhouse restaurants in 18 states.
The first BJ's Brewhouse opened in Santa Ana, CA in 1978. It all started when two men - Bill Cunningham and Michael Phillips - owners of a Burger King franchise in Southern California wanted to expand their franchise empire but were halted by the company who decreed that franchisees couldn't own multiple locations.
Cunningham and Phillips then looked toward owning a pizza restaurant. But not the typical Southern California pizza restaurant at that time where you had to wade through screaming kids, ordered your pizza at the counter and basically had to wait on yourself. They wanted an upscale sit-down place with good Chicago style pizza, beer and good food.
With only two years experience of running a Burger King, the men opened BJ's Chicago Pizzeria in Santa Ana, CA in 1978. The place became an instant hit. They eventually opened six BJ's in the area and business was booming. For years, they garnered awards for having the best pizza in the Los Angeles area.
In 1991, they turned to their accountants - Jerry Hennessy and Paul Motenko - to see how they could scale back their day-to-day involvement in the business. This intrigued the two accountants who immediately agreed to take over running the six restaurants, even though they had absolutely no experience running a restaurant.
Pictured right - Paul Motenko and Jerry Hennessy. Photo courtesy Orange County Register.
Hennessy and Motenko went on an aggressive campaign to expand BJ's by expanding the number of restaurants, buying up other chains, adding brewpubs to the mix, and making franchises available to buy. Motenko and Hennessy ended up buying out Cunningham and Phillips remaining shares of Chicago Pizza and Brewing, Inc. in 1995 and turning the existing locations into BJ's Brewhouse locations.
Hennessy and Motenko left BJ's Brewhouse in 2008 handing the reigns over to Jerry Deitchle. During the Deitchle's leadership, BJ's Brewhouse saw unprecedented growth in the number of franchises. In 2012, restaurant industry trade magazines called BJ's Brewhouse one of the fastest growing specialty restaurants in the nation. (Hennessy and Motenko subsequently opened a small chain of fast casual burger joints in Southern California called Stacked. It was called the first restaurant where customers placed their orders via a table side iPad.)
It was after 8 p.m. by the time we got into BJ's Brewhouse located in a shopping area on the north side W. Osceola Parkway in Kissimmee. (See map) We were seated in the dining area in a small booth. We were given menus and our server for the evening came by to take our drink orders. I got a Piranha Pale Ale, a house-brewed pale ale that I've had before during a previous visit to a BJ's Brewhouse. (I later found that they had Kona Big Wave Golden Ale on tap. I would have gotten that had I known they had it. But the Piranha was very good in its own right.) Industrial garage doors opened to an outdoor seating area.
The contemporary and ornate bar area featured a load of colorfully back-lit bottles of display beers and liquor bottles. A large flat screen television was featured in the middle of the back bar. I would have had no problem bellying up to the bar at this BJ's Brewhouse.
The menu at BJ's Brewhouse is large and varied. There's the upper crust appetizers such as calimari, Thai shrimp lettuce wraps, chicken pot stickers and Mexican-style spring rolls, as well as the normal chicken wings, mozzarella sticks and potato skins. Main entrees included Moroccan-spiced salmon, grilled pork chops, parmesan-encrusted chicken and an oven-roasted mahi mahi. Sandwiches and burgers were also plentiful on the menu along with a number of salads. BJ's Brewhouse also had steaks and pasta dishes on their menu.
I saw something that piqued my interest on the menu - the mahi mahi grilled fish tacos. The fish was topped with chipotle mayo and a spicy Santa Fe sauce, and finished with shredded cabbage, sliced carrots, sliced red onions and cilantro. They also came with an avocado cream sauce and fire-roasted tomato salsa with tortilla chips on the side. The fish tacos were very good. They did them right by not putting any cheese on top of the fish and toppings. The lightly grilled mahi mahi was flavorful and moist. The combination of the chipotle mayo and the spicy sauce gave the tacos a nice kick in the taste.
Being that BJ's Brewhouse started out as a pizza place nearly 40 years ago, they still have pizzas on the menu. Their pizza includes deep-dish pizza selections in four sizes. John ordered a small (9") BJ's Classic Combo that hit all my favorite toppings - sausage, pepperoni and mushrooms. Sliced seasoned tomatoes also came as a topping with BJ's Classic Combo. I had made quick work of my two fish tacos and John asked me if I wanted to have a piece of pizza. I couldn't say no. The pizza was good - not as good as some of the better deep-dish pizza places in Chicago that I like - but it was fine for what it was.
Everything was fine up to the end - our server forgot about us. I could have used another beer, but he was nowhere to be found. He didn't bring back our bill, either, when we were ready to leave. John had to find another server to try to find our guy. We finally got the bill - the only hiccup of the evening.
If you find a BJ's Brewhouse along the way, you can expect good food that is a notch up from a normal brewpub. While none of the food seems to be outstanding, it's still worth a stop if you can't figure out what you want to have for lunch or dinner. The beer they serve - both the ones they brew and the others they support - is very good. I normally don't like chains, but BJ's Brewhouse sort of breaks the mold for a chain restaurant.
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