BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse, a 39-year-old American brewpub and casual dining chain, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as it seeks to reorganize its business amid a difficult operating environment for restaurants and breweries. The filing places one of the most recognizable brewpub brands in the United States within a growing list of hospitality companies turning to court-supervised restructuring to manage costs, preserve operations, and adapt to shifting consumer behavior.
While the company has reported modest revenue growth and comparatively stable foot traffic, broader industry pressures have reshaped the economics of running large-format restaurants that brew beer on site. The Chapter 11 process offers BJ’s a legal framework to reassess its balance sheet and operations while continuing to serve customers across its national footprint.
Founded in Southern California and headquartered in Huntington Beach, BJ’s has evolved from a single pizza restaurant into a multi-state chain combining dining, craft beer production, and large sit-down venues. Over decades of expansion, the company built a brand associated with in-house brewing, a broad menu, and a casual dining experience designed to attract families as well as beer enthusiasts.
The bankruptcy filing does not necessarily signal an imminent shutdown of restaurants. Instead, Chapter 11 is commonly used by established chains to restructure debt, renegotiate leases, and realign operations while remaining open. For BJ’s, the move underscores how even well-known brands with national reach are being tested by cost inflation, competition, and a cooling beer market.
From Pizza Parlor to National Brewpub Chain
BJ’s origins trace back to 1978, when it opened in Southern California as a deep-dish Chicago-style pizza restaurant. For nearly two decades, the company operated as a traditional casual dining concept before making a pivotal shift in 1996 by beginning to brew its own craft beers. That decision aligned with the early growth of the American craft beer movement and helped differentiate BJ’s from other national restaurant chains.
By integrating brewing into its dining experience, the company positioned itself as both a restaurant and a brewhouse, an approach that proved popular with consumers seeking variety and novelty. Over time, BJ’s expanded well beyond its California roots. Today, the chain operates more than 200 restaurants across 31 states, supported by seven breweries that supply beer to its locations.
According to the company’s own disclosures, its brewing teams experiment with roughly 60 beers each year, ranging from classic styles to seasonal and limited-release offerings. This emphasis on brewing has earned BJ’s more than 220 awards at beer competitions, helping establish credibility in a crowded craft beer landscape. The awards also reinforced the brand’s identity as more than a typical casual dining chain, even as it scaled to a national level.
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The expansion strategy relied on large, high-capacity restaurants designed to serve food and beer to a broad customer base. While this model delivered growth for many years, it also came with higher fixed costs related to real estate, staffing, and utilities. As consumer habits shifted and operating expenses rose, the same scale that once fueled growth became harder to sustain. The Chapter 11 filing reflects the challenge of balancing a legacy business model with a marketplace that no longer guarantees consistent traffic for large dine-in concepts.
Financial Performance and Signals of Stability
Despite the bankruptcy filing, BJ’s recent financial disclosures show a business that has not collapsed but is instead navigating uneven conditions. In its most recent quarterly report for the third quarter of 2025, the company reported revenue of $330.2 million, representing a 1.4 percent increase year over year. Comparable restaurant sales rose by 0.5 percent, indicating modest same-store growth rather than a sharp decline.
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These figures suggest that BJ’s has managed to retain a significant portion of its customer base even as many casual dining brands struggle with traffic declines. Management commentary accompanying the quarterly report pointed to encouraging trends beneath the headline numbers. Excluding the first two weeks of the quarter, the company said it experienced strong and stable growth month to month.
Over the trailing six weeks of the period, BJ’s reported traffic tracking approximately 3.5 percent higher and outperforming casual dining benchmarks measured by Black Box Intelligence. Such metrics indicate that, operationally, the brand has not lost relevance with diners to the same extent as some peers. However, modest revenue growth does not necessarily translate into strong profitability in an environment of rising costs.
Labor expenses, food inputs, utilities, and brewing supplies have all increased in recent years, compressing margins across the restaurant industry. Even with stable traffic, higher costs can erode cash flow and strain balance sheets, particularly for chains carrying significant lease obligations. Chapter 11 allows BJ’s to address these structural pressures, potentially renegotiating terms with landlords and creditors while preserving the core business that continues to generate revenue.
Industry Pressures and the Changing Beer Landscape
BJ’s bankruptcy filing cannot be separated from the broader challenges facing both restaurants and craft breweries. Industry experts have described a “beer apocalypse” that began around 2023, marked by an unprecedented number of brewery closures. According to data cited by industry publications, the Brewers Association recorded 385 craft brewery closures in that year alone, a historic figure that underscored how quickly the market shifted. Increased competition, higher production costs, and changing consumer preferences combined to squeeze profitability for brewers of all sizes.
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Consumer attitudes toward alcohol consumption have evolved, with many people drinking less frequently or opting for alternatives. This trend has directly affected brewpubs and restaurants that rely on beer sales to boost margins. For a concept like BJ’s, which integrates brewing into its identity, a slowdown in beer demand has an outsized impact. At the same time, the casual dining sector has faced its own headwinds, including reduced discretionary spending and heightened competition from quick-service and fast-casual formats that offer lower prices and faster service.
Some restaurant and brewpub chains have managed to stabilize foot traffic, while others have filed for bankruptcy or closed locations entirely. BJ’s experience reflects this uneven landscape. The company has demonstrated resilience in traffic performance relative to benchmarks, yet it still faces the cumulative effect of years of rising costs and market saturation. Chapter 11 provides a mechanism to confront these pressures in a structured way, potentially allowing the chain to streamline operations without abandoning its national presence.
For consumers, the filing highlights the fragility of even established dining brands in a changing economy. For the industry, it serves as another data point illustrating how the intersection of casual dining and craft brewing has become more difficult to sustain at scale. Whether BJ’s emerges from Chapter 11 with a leaner cost structure or a revised growth strategy will depend on how effectively it can adapt to these realities while maintaining the brand attributes that built its following over nearly four decades.