BJ's Restaurants Opens in West Palm Beach, Florida


HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif., May 22, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BJ's Restaurants, Inc. (Nasdaq:BJRI) today announced the opening of its newest restaurant in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Monday, May 19, 2014. The new BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse is located at the Palm Beach Outlets, Florida's newest outlet center. The restaurant is approximately 8,500 square feet, seats approximately 280 guests and features BJ's extensive menu, including BJ's signature deep-dish pizza, award-winning handcrafted beer and famous Pizookie® dessert. Hours of operation are from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 midnight Sunday through Thursday, and 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. Friday and Saturday.  

"We are excited to open our first restaurant in West Palm Beach," commented Greg Trojan, President and CEO. "The new restaurant is our 17th restaurant in the State of Florida and our fifth restaurant in South Florida, where we have some of our highest sales volumes in the Florida market. Our next restaurant opening is scheduled for mid-August in Oviedo, Florida, which is located in the North Orlando market. To date, we have opened five new restaurants and we remain on track to open six more restaurants this year. We continue to believe that BJ's unique, contemporary décor provides the perfect environment for all dining occasions, and that our continued focus on quality, flavor, value, moderate prices and sincere service allow BJ's to pursue amazing for one and all in our Florida and other markets." 

BJ's Restaurants, Inc. currently owns and operates 151 casual dining restaurants under the BJ's Restaurant & Brewery®, BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse®, BJ's Pizza & Grill® and BJ's Grill® brand names. BJ's Restaurants offer an innovative and broad menu featuring award-winning, signature deep-dish pizza complemented with generously portioned salads, appetizers, sandwiches, soups, pastas, entrees and desserts, including the Pizookie® dessert. The Company operates several brew pubs in addition to using independent third party brewers to produce and distribute BJ's critically acclaimed craft beers. The Company's restaurants are located in California (64), Texas (30), Florida (17), Arizona (6), Colorado (5), Nevada (5), Ohio (4), Washington (4), Oklahoma (3), Oregon (3), Kentucky (2), Virginia (2), Arkansas (1), Indiana (1), Kansas (1), Louisiana (1), Maryland (1) and New Mexico (1). Visit BJ's Restaurants, Inc. on the Web at http://www.bjsrestaurants.com.

Certain statements in the preceding paragraphs and all other statements that are not purely historical constitute "forward-looking" statements for purposes of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and are intended to be covered by the safe harbors created thereby. Such statements include, but are not limited to, those regarding expected comparable restaurant sales and margin growth in future periods, total potential domestic capacity, the success of various sales-building and productivity initiatives, future guest traffic trends and the number and timing of new restaurants expected to be opened in future periods. These "forward-looking" statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results to be materially different from those projected or anticipated. Factors that might cause such differences include, but are not limited to: (i) our ability to manage an increasing number of new restaurant openings, (ii) construction delays, (iii) labor shortages, (iv) increase in minimum wage and other employment related costs, including the potential impact of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on our operations, (v) the effect of credit and equity market disruptions on our ability to finance our continued expansion on acceptable terms, (vi) food quality and health concerns, (vii) factors that impact California, where 64 of our current 151 restaurants are located, (viii) restaurant and brewery industry competition, (ix) impact of certain brewery business considerations, including without limitation, dependence upon suppliers, third party contractors and related hazards, (x) consumer spending trends in general for casual dining occasions, (xi) potential uninsured losses and liabilities due to limitations on insurance coverage, (xii) fluctuating commodity costs and availability of food in general and certain raw materials related to the brewing of our handcrafted beers and energy, (xiii) trademark and service-mark risks, (xiv) government regulations and licensing costs, (xv) beer and liquor regulations, (xvi) loss of key personnel, (xvii) inability to secure acceptable sites, (xviii) legal proceedings, (xix) other general economic and regulatory conditions and requirements, (xx) the success of our key sales-building and related operational initiatives, and (xxi) numerous other matters discussed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its recent reports on Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K. The "forward-looking" statements contained in this press release are based on current assumptions and expectations and BJ's Restaurants, Inc. undertakes no obligation to update or alter its "forward-looking" statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

For further information, please contact Greg Levin of BJ's Restaurants, Inc. at (714) 500-2400.