BJ's Restaurants announces opening of newest location in Clearwater, Florida

Nevin Barich

HUNTINGTON BEACH, California , March 1, 2012 (press release) – BJ's Restaurants, Inc. (Nasdaq:BJRI) today announced the opening of its newest restaurant in Clearwater, Florida on February 27, 2012. The new BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse is located in a new expansion of the 1.2 million square foot Westfield Countryside Mall. The in-line BJ's restaurant is approximately 9,000 square feet, contains seating for approximately 280 guests, and features BJ's extensive menu including BJ's signature deep-dish pizza, award-winning handcrafted beer and famous Pizookie® dessert. BJ's highly detailed, contemporary décor and unique video statement, including BJ's 103" plasma display as well as several high-definition flat panel televisions, creates a high energy, fun and family-friendly dining environment for everyone to enjoy. 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 very excited to open our first new restaurant of fiscal 2012 in Clearwater, Florida," said Jerry Deitchle, Chairman and CEO. "Our new Clearwater restaurant joins our two other successful BJ's restaurants in the Tampa market and also represents our ninth restaurant in the state of Florida, where we have achieved some of our strongest comparable restaurant sales growth during the last couple of years. We believe that Florida will continue to be a fertile development ground for future BJ's restaurants, with two additional restaurants planned to open in Florida later this year." The Company remains solidly on track to open as many as 16 new restaurants during fiscal 2012, including one relocation of an existing, older smaller-format BJ's Pizza & Grill location to a site that can support a larger-format BJ's restaurant. Investors are reminded that the actual number and timing of new restaurant openings is subject to a number of factors outside of the Company's control including, but not limited to, weather conditions and factors under the control of landlords, contractors and regulatory/licensing authorities

BJ's Restaurants, Inc. currently owns and operates 116 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. Quality, flavor, value, moderate prices and sincere service remain distinct attributes of the BJ's experience. The Company operates several microbreweries in addition to using qualified contract brewers to produce and distribute BJ's critically acclaimed proprietary handcrafted beers throughout the chain. The Company's restaurants are located in California (56), Texas (24), Arizona (6), Colorado (4), Oregon (2), Nevada (5), Florida (9), Ohio (3), Oklahoma (2), Kentucky (1), Indiana (1), Louisiana (1) and Washington (2). Visit BJ's Restaurants, Inc. on the Web at http://www.bjsrestaurants.com.

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