Well, here I am again, Southgate's resident food critic. This time, the Southgate staff was specially invited to a private-party opening of BJ’s Restaurant and Brewery located at the new Summit Mall. Just looking at the outside of BJ’s is enough to make you say "wow." It's beautiful with huge beer silos located to the side of the restaurant. The staff had to stop for a picture.
As I waited in my car for the rest of the Southgaters to arrive, I was intrigued as the hungry population made their way for BJ’s but only to be turned down at the door if they didn’t have an invitation in hand. How special we were to be invited!
With all the hype Kelsey had captivated us with about BJ’s, we were all ready to dine on their famous Chicago-style pizza. When we all arrived, we were greeted quite nicely and were shown to our table. The inside was even better than the out. Inside B J’s was a huge dining area with beautiful decorations. Large mirrors and paintings decorated the walls all around us. Mood-setting track-lighting was placed all about the dining area. Kelsey and I marveled at the bar area (no, we didn’t drink anything from it!). It was a very long bar with large shelves behind it which held all types of hard liquor, some very colorful.
Across the restaurant was a large, gorgeous mural. We were hoping to get a picture in front of it, but we had to be rolled out of the restaurant because we ate so much and therefore lost our opportunity. We were given a temporary menu in which to choose our dinner and were asked, for training purposes, if we could all chose a different item. Now, if you don’t already know, we Southgaters never pass up the chance to share our food with each other, so everyone always gets something different. So, if you couldn’t guess, we all had no problem getting something different from one another.
All five of us girls ordered different types of personal pizzas. Personally, I liked mine the best. It was called the "Great White". It came with pan-seared chicken, Alfredo sauce, mushrooms, and parmesan cheese. Everyone else loved the barbeque chicken pizza. Of course, Rusty had to have something different, but he loved his as well.
Our waiter was very nice, as was our bus boy and even the manager stopped by to take a few pictures of the group for us. All in all, BJ’s rates high up on my list. I’d say, if I was giving stars, it would get four and half stars. You can bet that wasn’t Southgate's last time at the wonderful Restaurant and Brewery.
-Southgate's Resident Food Critic
Sara