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BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse - A California Brewpub Chain in Several Suburban Locations


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Location: 8027 Leesburg Pike (same building that used to house the Tyson's Borders and Filene's Basement.  Accessible via elevator to the first floor via free underground parking.

Website

Happened across this place by accident and just managed to get there tonight.  To put it mildly, in case you're not keen on reading what else I have to say, I was impressed but hardly blown away.  Let's get into the "impressed" part.

First, before going, pre-register for their "Premier Awards" program to get a temporary card.  Not only will it earn you either a free handcrafted soda or "Pizookie" (more on that later) on your first visit, it allows you to list food allergies/aversions, and you can 'check in' at the server's station using your number, which is passed to your server to allow them to not only double-check that you won't need an EpiPen if you fail at reading comprehension, but also make sure to credit your account with points for future visits, which saves you from having to remember to give them your card, saving more time.  Having been in several eye-rolling dinner situations where someone with a food allergy proceeds to lecture a server (and by extension everyone in their party and those within earshot) about WHY they can't eat something, or whether or not something HAS something that might kill them in it, I consider this a genius move.  People who also prefer to eat gluten-free will be pleased at the selection offered, as well.

Starting out with the decor, I can say that they certainly went all out for their first East Coast location.  It looks like a Clyde's mixed with a Great American Restaurant motif.  Sedate yet art deco - it's very much not a sports bar, which is honestly a good thing in my mind.  It's adequately lit but not blinding, and nothing stands out garishly save for a Depression/Proletariat propaganda-looking 'farming' mural on the back wall that shows a farmer holding a scythe in a very suggestively portrayed manner.  It just seemed an odd choice of decoration for a Tyson's location.  The space is also very open (and rather spacious), meaning that if your server walks anywhere near you, you'll be able to see and flag them down.

The drink menu takes ample advantage of Virginia's arcane "menu must contain 'x' food items to allow serving of hard liquor" law, as I don't think there's a type of booze you *can't* get here, and the bar is rather nice to look at, even if you'll wonder how the hell they got some of the bottles up so high and if they ever intend on getting them down.  Also, unlike some of the GAR restaurants, they aren't afraid to have 'guest beers' on their menu to supplant their 'in-house' choices, which I thought was nice.

The problem, and the first criticism, is that the *food* menu is gigantic.  You're too spoiled for choice on what you can order, and I recommend doing a recon of it on their website (listed above) before going.  I was eating with a recovering alcoholic, so I opted for their 'handcrafted root beer,' and not always being a fan of root beer in general, thought it was pretty damned good.  They serve it in a frosted mug (which is replaced with a new one upon each free refill), which is an extra little bonus as you're gifted with little slugs of 'slush' (I'll grant it doesn't sound appetizing when I phrase it like that) with each sip.  The appetizer we settled on was the calamari, which was certainly 'appetizing' in the sense that it was cooked and seasoned well, yet questionably measured up in volume and presentation to the example shown in the menu.

Expect to feel plenty of guilt when eating here as well, as the menus also list the calorie count for *most* of their items, offering only an "enlightened" menu (<575cal) as respite from the onset of Type 2 Diabetes.  The burger I ate contained an entire day's worth of calories, which is good as it was the only substantive thing I'd eaten all day.

We played it safe on the main course, and as usual, for my first visit, and because I always consider it a good measure of how well a place can cook by ordering something *easy*, I went with their "Brewhouse Burger," and my friend went with a steak salad.  The burger was very well-cooked and *actually* showed signs that there's someone working the grill who isn't afraid to season meat (which should bode well for their steaks).  The steak salad, on the other hand, fell prey to the same verdict as the one from my experience at Open Road Icehouse in Merrifield.  She enjoyed it until she noticed she had no more protein (which she enjoyed) or starch and nothing but a bed of field greens more suited for a rabbit's consumption than a human's.  We got a peek or two at their pizzas (offered in both traditional and deep-dish variety ranging from mini to what-the...), and both types looked rather good.

The only thing I'd expressly recommend *not* ordering is their "Atlantic Salmon."  In case you didn't know, there *are* no wild Atlantic Salmon anymore - if you see the term "Atlantic" used, it means "farmed," which comes with all the niceties of corralled food like antibiotics and growth hormones (says the guy who ordered the burger <_<), as well as the delightful coloring methods they use to make it resemble wild-caught.  I give them extra points for honesty, but most people don't bother to do their own due diligence.

After finishing our entrees...or rather, me finishing mine and my friend pushing away a plate full of rabbit food, we inquired about the 'free Pizookie' for signing up for the Rewards program.  *Technically*, the sign-up promises a *mini* Pizookie or a free handcrafted soda like the root beer mentioned above.  We were instead offered a 'full-size' one, and found it rather hard to complain or mention otherwise.

...

ANYWAY, the "Pizookie" is their ~trademarked~ signature dessert, where a freshly-baked cookie is baked in one of their mini pizza pans (hence the name - Pizza + Cookie :rolleyes:) and then topped with two scoops of vanilla ice cream (or chocolate in the case of one).  It's offered in almost every variety of cookie you can think of, including a Red Velvet and Oreo-themed variety, along with a few holiday-themed ones and a few featuring Ghirardelli chocolate.

The last little 'nice touch' came with the check.  Listed on the ticket were pre-calculated 15 and 20% gratuity figures (computed from the grand total, not subtotal), which saved me a few seconds in fishing out my phone for the calculator.  The server also did not try to 'upsell' us, but that might have been because our dessert had been comped.

Final verdict?  This place is going to do *massive* business going into the cold months, and not only because the food is rather decent.  Underground parking coupled with elevator access gives this place a 'plus,' as no one likes parking in an icy/slushy exposed parking lot and risking a sprained ankle to spend 50 bucks on dinner.  That being said, one of the location's best advantages is also one of its greatest annoyances - sharing the building with Nordstrom Rack ensures the parking spaces near the elevators on "P1" will always be highly-trafficked, greatly increasing the chance of fender-benders and door scrapes.  My advice is to park one floor down on P2 and avoid the retail shoppers like the plague.

To my knowledge, however, this place has been open around two weeks.  It could still be in the Honeymoon period where everyone's in try-hard mode to acquire and keep customers, though the one Yelp review I read about the servers "hovering" over tables was not the case with our experience.

It's definitely worth a try, just don't expect anything exceptional.

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What a great post, destruya.

BJ's is going to be direct competition for Chef Geoff's; it would not have been direct competition for Colvin Run Tavern.

Is this a peak into the future of Tysons Corner? (Remember: "Save Evans Farm Inn?" What a sham that was - Tysons had already been fated by the greedy developers and corrupt politicians to become the dystopian chimera into which it's being mutated, and may I suggest "The Cave" by José Saramago.) And, to The Hersch or anyone else with an interest in local cartography, does anyone know why Tysons Corner isn't called Tyson's Corner? I don't think I've ever seen it written with an apostrophe. Interesting aside: If you walk up the hill at Fort Reno, you can get a splendid view of Tysons Corner. Sorry if I've gotten off on a slight tangent.

(If someone could remember to post here when the Frederick location opens, I'd appreciate it.)

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BJ's is going to be direct competition for Chef Geoff's...

Yeah, this place is by no means 'fine dining,' it's basically Gordon Biersch/Blackfinn crossed with TGI Fridays, with pricing (as well as plating) landing a bit more on the side of the former.  I can't imagine the space they're in came cheap.

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I went to the Tyson's Corner location for the first and likely last time. Agree the decor is a notch above a typical chain. I had somewhat high expectations thinking this could be as good as the Yardhouse, which is a similar brew pub chain. Big mistake. I had what should be pretty simple and safe food for a restaurant - grilled chicken sandwich and fries. Chicken sandwich was not a grilled breast but slices of cold cooked chicken with pre grilled marks - the kind you get out of a Tyson's package at the grocery store. Wedge fries were wedge alright but also cold. I picked at a couple of fries and some of the chicken before I called it a night. Not worth the waste in calories. I also had a sampler of the ales and a porter. They were all very weak with not much body at all. If I was blindfolded I might have thought they were all the same and that they were pilsners.

Kids had burgers that they only ate half of (they said they were not good) and shoe string fries, which were also cold. My wife had a salad with chicken, which looked to be from the same source as my chicken. She ate about a quarter of hers.

The kids each had the mini Pizza/cookies, which were on the house after I complained about my food (I didn't send my food back out of fear that this is kind of restaurant that you don't send food back to if you have seen those hidden camera news shows). They said they were good so the highlight of a brew house concept is the desserts. That's a first for me, but maybe they see success following the path of Cheesecake Factory.

Btw: the place was a quarter full on a Sunday night.

Buyer beware.

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I agree with you about Yard House - same concept as these guys, but much better execution.  Shame the closest one is in *Virginia Beach* with no plans to open near here any time soon.

I haven't been back for a second visit, but if they can't nail a Sunday night service, it might be quite a while before I do.  Sorry for giving you a bad steer, as my experience was 'alright' but not stellar.  The unfortunate thing is that this place can likely succeed on the bar profits alone, so they might not see a real need to improve.

Also, supposedly they employ "secret diners," so if you want a really attentive and paranoid server, just bring a clipboard along with you and pretend to take notes while trying to not be obvious about it.  All kidding aside, though - servers make next to nothing anyway, so reading about them being spied on and then being potentially penalized for not nailing a checkbox on a list puts another dark mark down.

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