BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse

Stopped in here last night for dinner with the family. BJ's is located in the renovated Northgate Mall and is the first one to open in the North Bay. There is plenty of parking available in the various mall lots.

The space is fairly large and looks like a chain restaurant. There are lots of booths and two tops. The bar is located in the back right part of the building. They have some brewing tanks in the back and I was told by our server that they will be brewing at the location. There are plenty of tv's scattered throughout and they have a massive 4 channel split screen tv above the bar.

The beer selection was definitely a cut above what I have seen at other chain breweries (i.e. Rock Bottom). They carry their regular 7 house beers (Blonde, Hefe, PA, Red, Nut Brown, Porter, Stout) and a seasonal beer, which at the time was a pumpkin ale. I counted 38 guest taps, some of which were good. They had Marin IPA, Drake's IPA, Moylan's Kilt Lifter, Lagunitas IPA, SN Celebration, Aventinus ($7.00 for a 10 oz glass-yikes!), Monk's Cafe Flemish Sour Red, and a few others. They also had 19 Belgian bottles avaialble including Westmalle Triple and Piraat.
I had a glass of the house Piranha Pale Ale which was tasty and a SN Celebration. The Celebration was around $5.25 and the PA was around $4.75.

The food menu is quite long. They have a little of everything from pizza to sandwiches to salads to pasta. I had the Sesame Chciken Salad and my wife had the California Club flatbread pizza. Both were a cut above what you normally get from other chain restaurants.

The service was good and attentive, although the beer knowledge was sorely lacking.

It's always good to have another place to catch a pint. This seems like a good place to get some apps and catch a game, although it lacks the local flair of Moylan's, Iron Springs, and Marin BrewCo.