Location: BJ's Brewhouse
Greenwood, IN
I got an invite to the soft opening of BJ's Brewhouse tonight for a complimentary dinner to test out the menu, the beer, and to raise money for charity. I am always up for trying a new place and am even happier when it is a brewhouse.
They have built up the area around the Greenwood Park Mall quite nicely. It is nice to see new restaurants (albeit chain restaurants) new shops, and a new look to an old area. BJ's is a company out of California that has been in business since 1978. The Greenwood location is their first in Indiana.
The outside of the restaurant is a big box of place that fits well in a chain restaurant model. The inside is actually quite nice with plenty of flat screen tv's, lots of seating, and a very large bar. Even though they are called a "brewhouse" they are not actually brewing beer in the Greenwood location. I found out they are shipping the beer in from Reno, NV. They are making their own root beer on location though.
The meal I had was actually really really good. I had the fish tacos. It is hard to get fish tacos in Indiana as I only think I've seen them on the menu in about four locations downtown. My wife
got a salad that wasn't anything groundbreaking, but just a simple and fresh salad that had very good flavor.I had to taste a few of their beers as well. I tried the Nutty Brewnette brown ale, and Piranha pale ale. The brown ale was a lighter version of a heavier brown ale that I am a little more used to, but I got great flavors of the nutty chocolate malt and just a touch of bitter hops. There was little to speak of when it came to the nose. I wasn't wowed by this beer, but it is actually a tasty little session brew that I will be having again if I go there. The pale ale though said it was for "hopheads only" on the menu, and I laughed a bit at that. You can clearly taste the chinook and cascade hops, but nothing in the high IBU's on this and is only slightly bitter. Another midgrade session beer that I would have again. There wasn't much nose on either of these beers, but they were both served way to cold, and you can see in the picture how much moisture is on
the outside of the pint glass.I think this is another good place for Greenwood even though it is a chain restaurant. The prices are very reasonable as well. All of their beer is either 4.25 to 4.75 and that includes their Totonka stout that is a RIS.
Cheers!
Matt
7 comments:
LMAO:
Hefeweizen....try it without a lemon.
I'll probably give this place a whirl if I'm ever shopping down that way. Though, this is basically across the street from Shallos, right? Hmmmm....that's a tough sell.
(and just to clarify, I think it's hilarious that they have to tell people to try hefe without lemon.)
No BJ Brewhouse's in my area, sounds like a Rock Bottom clone. Funny how their Imperial Stout only has <5% ABV - that doesn't meet the style guidelines in my book unless it has at least 7% ABV. Still, a new place is always fun to try.
yea, the beer all seemed middle of the road to me. Good catch Dave on the RIS not being in the style guidelines. I never even caught that.
This place was built to make money, and serving middle of the road beer that will sell to the masses is the name of the game.
That place looks more like a movie theater than a restaurant in the picture. Sounds like they are doing it pretty good for a chain though.
One thing that really bothers me is when a bar/restaurant calls itself something that it isn't. I guess these guys calling themselves a brewhouse isn't too bad because they actually make their own beer, just not on premise. But there is a bar up the street from me called the Brighton Beer Garden, and there isn't even outdoor seating; it's just a sports bar. Call me crazy, just gets to me sometimes.
Hey at least the prices are fair!
This chain is better than a lot of them. The food is definitely a touch above Rock Bottom and like the beer is cheaper too. They tend to have a solid variety, with a couple of seasonals/specialties shifting in and out. Their Hefeweizen is solid- better than most- and whatever they billed as a Koelsch imitation was better than expected and I ordered a second. The bottom line is that this place gets a bad rap for being a chain and inexplicably not brewing at your location, but I would take it over a lot of other chains (Gordon Biersch, Rock Bottom and others) and even some other lauded specialty places *Coughcough4peaksTempecough*.
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