Fine Dining - BJ's Restaurant: Snooki, Deep Dish, & The Pizookie

Episode Date: January 21, 2026

🍕🍺📚 BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse: Finding the Gimmick (It Was Beer) 📚🍺🍕 This week kicks off Part 1 of our BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse coverage with a full Eat Deets history episode, joined by PJ McCormick (@peejmccormick). We trace BJ's unlikely evolution from a Chicago-style pizza experiment to a beer-forward empire, debate whether pizza was ever really their best foot forward, and draw a completely reasonable comparison between BJ's brand identity journey and Stone Cold Steve Austin ditching the Ringmaster gimmick. Also yes: blowjob jokes. 🍕 "BJ Grunt's" Got a Cease-and-Desist 🍺 Explaining the Real Gimmick via Stone Cold Steve Austin 📈 From Pizza Joint to National Restaurant & Brewhouse Chain 🍪 The Birth of the Pizookie and How It Stole the Whole Show 🎤 PJ Pitches His Dream Restaurant: A Pho Spot Where You're Immortalized for Not Coughing ⭐ Yelp From Strangers Includes a "Fat and Ugly" Man Mad His Hot Waiter Wouldn't Hustle for the Tip 💬 COMMENT BELOW: Is BJ's a pizza place, a brewery, or just a Pizookie delivery system? 📢 SUPPORT THE SHOW & JOIN THE COMMUNITY: 🎉 Patreon (Bonus episodes, extended Yelp segments & more): patreon.com/finediningpodcast 💬 Discord (Food talk, memes, cursed Yelp): discord.gg/6a2YqrtWV4 🎥 Watch full episodes: youtube.com/channel/UCLbraNhL6KhDPkdSWt2yiuw 🔗 All links: linktree.com/finediningpodcast 🎤 Guest: PJ McCormick | IG: @peejmccormick Patreon Producers: Sue Ornelas & Joyce Van Patreon Subscribers: David Ornelas, Kellie Baldwin, Jeremy Horwitz, Herbert Amaya, Simone Davalos, Scott Bennett, Amy Reinhart, Josef Castaneda-Liles, & Travis Langley Free Patreon Followers: Joe Warszalek, Lauren Cummings, Grace Krainak, Keri Estes, Robert Duran, Patrick Elliott, Michelle Elmer, Dave Plummer, Nicholas Volney, Michael Gerard, Tracy Molino, Phuong Duong, Tyler Robinson, Brandon Gully, Mason Cruz, Michael Milito, Mez, Aaron Hubbard, Steff, Robert McLaughlin, & Jewell Hermann 👉 NEXT WEEK: Part 2 as we actually eat BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse and find out if the pizza, the wings, or the Pizookie can beat Chili's.

Did BJ's restaurant and brewhouse invent the most iconic dessert of all time? What started as a desire to bring Chicago deep dish and tavern-style pizza to Southern California, BJ's restaurant and brewhouse has kept expanding its offerings to the point that I couldn't tell you what their main thing is anymore, unless you count teaming up with celebrities long after the height of their popularity. But one thing is for sure. Once they added beer, their popularity exploded. Add to that the Pizuki, a warm. cookie dessert baked in a deep dish pizza pan, and it's no surprise that BJ's grew to have a major

presence among American Fair casual dining chain restaurants. This week on the show, I'll dish my knowledge deep into your pan of curiosity so that you two may know everything I've learned about BJ's restaurant and brewhouse. Then we'll direct our attention to the people of Yelp to see what they're saying about the very BJs we just ate at. Stay tuned. This is the fine dining podcast. I cannot take your seat The flavor of the day is mediocrity Wouldn't you like to try a body fry? I cannot believe that

their first intention for this restaurant was the deep dish pizza because that was actually my least favorite thing Was it really? Yeah. Okay. I'm so surprised by that. It was why I insisted we ordered it.

Oh. Knowing that like that was their origins. Okay. Yeah, that's shocking. I thought, like, their whole thing was craft beer, which neither of us even got. Neither of us had it. Yeah. So, yeah.

Hello, and welcome to the fine dining podcast, the quest to compare all restaurants to Chili's. I am your host, Michael Ornellis. And in this podcast, we learned the history of our favorite restaurant change one week before seeing how they compare to Chili's in week two. This week on the show, I'll be going through the history of the BJ's brand. And joining me today to discuss it is an actor and improviser who lost his spot on his improv team, Lohan, because of a wrestling match at the Midnight Rumble at Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, a show that he produces. He gives me mustache envy and he gives off the vibe that he'd be great at claw machines. It's PJ McCormick. Well, thank you so much for that intro.

Let's introduce me as the guy who used to do something. You still do it. Yeah. No, I'm still on. Someone else took the bullet for me. Thank you, Andrew Grace. Yeah. Thank you for having me.

This is so great to be here. Of course. Yeah. And it was a fun meal, too. I didn't even think about it. But like, did you bring me on to do BJs because my name is PJ? I did. Yeah.

Okay. Well, I brought you on because I wanted you on. I chose BJs for you because your name is PJ. Gotcha. It's so ironic because that is like such a point of shame for me. Yeah? Well, whenever I introduce myself and say my name to people. they they like if it's in a noisy room I always get asked like is your wait

BJ and then I just get like really embarrassed and ashamed and now I got you to say like I now I'm associated with a blowjob so it's funny that we went to the the source of my shame that has now become a restaurant yes yes do you have beyond just the source of shame to the name do you have a lot of history with the brand like with the company or with the restaurant going there before. Yeah, I, um, my, I think like my, my high school sweetheart and I used to go to BJs a lot when I, you know, growing up in Sugarland, Texas, it was like, it was like right next to the mall. And we would, I think that was like one of our first dates going to BJs.

And the whole time, you know, I'm like a teenager just making jokes about blowjobs thinking I'm hilarious and charming and funny, which I guess worked back then. Yeah. But we didn't even bring up blowjobs once today. So I think like I need to just get it out of my system now. No, it's in my script later. Okay, good, good, good. It's there.

So yeah, like, yeah, I used to go there. And I think I went there with my mom one time. So, yeah, it's a place I frequent with all the women in my life. Just the affiliation with that in blow jobs. I'm like, I went there with my mom. I went there with my high school girlfriend. Yeah. She wouldn't stop making blowjob jokes. I know. Oh my gosh. Yeah. It was so annoying. My high school girlfriend, uh, our first date, I took her to see Jackass 2. And we walked in late. And it was literally just a moment where they were just eating actual shit. And I was just like, and then we dated for like almost five years.

Yeah, yeah. A shit for five years. Yeah. That's, yeah, so I think it's the date destination of America, I'd say. And can I bring up that you were in some advertising for BJs? Yeah, I did some social media. Yeah. I did, like a friend of a friend was doing, like, their advertising. And I went there with, like, me and Joe Fahey, like my improv teammate, you know, creative partner.

we did like a couple sketches for them like very improvised you know silly cute stuff but it was great because like the staff was like all about you know giving us everything on the menu so we could film us enjoying it

and I think it was about a year ago because it was all like Christmas themes I think it was like a white elephant theme social media thing yeah and I and I we specifically ordered the like the bathtub rubber duckie.

The rubber duckie like drink. Yeah. Yeah. And that was pretty good. It was actually pretty good. I don't remember what was in it, but it was blue. Yeah. And so sweet and so it looks crazy. Yeah. It's nuts. And it was foamy too. It looks like a happy meal toy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They should introduce more alcohol to the happy meal. To kids. Yeah. Yeah. Joe's Crabshack had an incident with that where they have a drink called Shark Bite, which is like a blue. drink that comes with a rubber shark and then they have a kid's version called shark nibbles and it looks the same but it's not alcoholic but they serve one in plastic and one in glass and a server accidentally brought a glass one which is the alcohol one to a kid and then the kid got like does it take that off the menu because of that no it's still there it's still there it's still there it's still there but it was like a whole thing like less a little under a decade ago yeah yeah that should be the parents responsibility. Like, it should be the parent that's giving you your first alcoholic beverage

so you know what it's like. It's under safe conditions and not some like 19 year old server at Joe Crap Shack. Like, they took that away from the parents, unfortunately. Yeah. But the kid still passed a sobriety test. So, you know. Oh, he drove home too. Yeah. And then my history with BJs is honestly pretty minimal. I've just been a couple of times. And both the other times I'd been. Then I thought it was unremarkable. I wasn't really impressed by the Pizuki. I wasn't really impressed by the pizza. Maybe that changed this time.

We'll see. But those first two times, I was kind of not underwhelmed by the idea of going to BJs, but I was just like, all right, that's just another one. But yeah, today was pretty good. Anyways, that's your history with BJs. That's mine. Do you want to hear the history of BJs? I need to know where this name came from.

Like, I cannot believe we have a mainstream, restaurant that's called BJ's. And everyone's saying it with a straight face. Yeah, it's nuts. It's nuts. Where did that come from? We'll get into it. We're going to jump into this week's Eat Dietz.

Eatery Details. BJs started out as a small pizza joint in Santa Ana, California, founded by two friends who were eager to bring Chicago-style deep-dish pizza to the West Coast. It was originally called BJ Grunts, until a naming scuffle with the similar named RJ Grunts, a famous Chicago burger joint, forced a quick rebrand to BJ's Chicago Pizzeria. I know. Adding grunts to the BJ is not.

Okay, someone's already got RJ grunts. How about BJ moans? BJ gags. BJ's follows. Yeah. I hate that. I really hate that. Like just trying to capitalize on someone else's success and you just change one.

letter of the name. Right. So that like it's, I see improv teams do it a lot. Yeah. Where like they will make a, like they used to be a show called one big, I'm talking shit now.

But like I host a show called one big jam. And then like an indie team made a team called a show called one big ham cat. And I was like, oh, you're messing with the algorithm. Yeah, it's just kind of like referential. Yeah. Do you know the halal guys? Yeah, not personally.

There was, there's a chain that popped up for a little bit just called Halal Girls. And they were like, and they're like, it's like the ghostbusters debacle. Yeah, it was the, yeah. Chris Hemsworth was like objectified at Halal Girls. In a game of ownership hot potato, BJ's original owners sold 50% of the company for $14,000 shortly after opening the first store in 1978. The new half owners left the company to its accountant. in 1991. Paul Matenko and Jerry Hennessy, originally the BJ's number crunchers, bought the chain

and set it on a new course. They took BJ's public on the stock market in 1996, back when it was just a six-store operation, raising funds that would fuel the brand's rapid expansion, at which point the original owners sold their shares, and it was entirely in the accountant's hands. Yeah, wow. Look at what it became. I wish I could find something like that. to jump in on the ground floor and like,

just have it skyrocket. I know. I couldn't even afford 14,000 if I found like the next big thing. Right. Yeah. That's what that's what banks want. They want you to take out that loan. Yeah.

Yeah. BJs didn't start brewing beer until the mid-1990s, but it sure made up for lost time. In 1996, they rolled out their first in-house craft beers at a BJs in Brea, California, officially turning the pizzeria into a restaurant and brew house where you could wash down deep dish pizzas with BJ's own handcrafted brews. Fast forward to today and BJs operates multiple brewing facilities across the country and offers 11 award-winning house beers plus rotating seasonals,

racking up hundreds of medals for its craft brews over the years. So they found the gimmick. They found their thing. I mean, we're both like wrestling fans. To me, this sounds like BJ started as the ringmaster. And then they found their stone cold gimmick with the brewery. And both of them are beer. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, you just inject it. That's how you get a gimmick over. Just like start drinking guzzling beer. Just so much beer. And actually at BJ's, when you order two beers, they do smash them together and you barely get any. Yeah, you get like an ounce. I'm surprised BJ's hasn't expanded to like, I mean, if they are, they are a brewhouse and they make their own beer, I'm surprised at like you can't buy that. in the store. You can. They have a, like, a fridge to the left right when you walk in that has, like,

cases of, like, take-home canned beer. You know, I saw that. I didn't know what that was. Yeah. So that's interesting. But you can't, like, go into a Ralph's or anything and buy that beer, right? I don't know. I wouldn't be surprised if you can just because there is so much chain restaurant product that you can buy in, like, you can get the White Castle sliders. You can get. It's like, It was like Golden Road, like Marie Callender's pies and, you know, stuff like that. Yeah. Wait, Marie Calendar is a restaurant? Yeah.

Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. Oh, interesting. What began as a SoCal phenomenon gradually went national. BJ's expanded beyond California and now boasts 200 plus restaurants across 30 plus states from Oregon and Texas to as far as the East Coast. And the menu itself has exploded over time. BJ's was once all about pizza, but nowadays you'll find everything from burgers and jumbalaya

to salads and steaks on the lineup alongside the deep dish and tavern style pizzas. I can't believe it's a pizza place. I've never had the pizza there. Yeah. I've only ever had the burger. Okay.

I assumed it was like a beer and burger place this whole time. I cannot believe it's a deep dish pizza place. I also feel like they've gone too far with their offerings. It's not quite cheesecake factory levels, but it is, you mentioned that you got like choice paralysis.

Oh, I have terrible choice. paralysis. I can't if I see more than eight items, I shut down and I have the person I'm with order for me. Or if I see more than eight pages. I mean, this was this was probably like an eight to 12 page menu. It was somewhere in there. Yeah. I I flip through it like I'm flipping through the finance section of the newspaper. I'm not even reading anything. I'm just looking at like hieroglyphics. You're like this is what adults do. Yeah, I know. All right. What's the cheapest thing? That's usually where my brain goes. It's the cheapest thing on the menu.

I cannot make a decision based on like quality of food. So I'm just going to make it based on like what's the most affordable thing here. I think the one thing I'm always going to avoid at a place like this is steak. Because it's just like chain restaurant tier steak never lives up to like a great steak. There's no love. Yeah. Steak you got to like put a lot of love and heart into it. Yeah.

You know, that's why it's like best to make your own. Yeah. In my opinion. I've been working on it this year. I've made a couple really good stakes this year. Do you have a ventilation system for that? Not a great one. I have actually just unplugged my smoke alarm from the ceiling.

Oh, I used to make stakes when I had like a bigger apartment and all the windows, all the doors were open and it was still so smoky in there. Yeah. I don't trust a BJ's chef to do that. B.J.'s built its name on Hardy, Chicago. style deep dish pizzas, but perhaps its most iconic creation is the Pizuki. BJ's invented this pizza cookie hybrid in-house, and it's basically a warm, gooey cookie baked in a deep dish pan and topped with ice cream, served up fresh from the oven. The Pazuki became a cult favorite and is now world famous, often stealing the thunder

from BJ's other offerings and spawning tons of flavors, from peanut butter to salted caramel, or in the case of ours, Dubai chocolate. I really wanted to try that. That sounded really good. But I also, I'm, I've been caught up in like, you know, the algorithm of Dubai chocolate. It's all over my Instagram reels. And I've never had one that's like as good as when people make it themselves. And it seems like everyone's making their own Dubai chocolate thing.

And I, every time I try something like it, I'm always disappointed. I've been disappointed every time to where I'm just, it no longer even grabs my eye. I see it. Really? Yeah. I just, I think I just want like a big, thick Dubai chocolate,

you know, homemade thing. Yeah. I think I just got to make it myself. But yeah, I can't imagine, you know, some like pistachio sauce

and like the crispy noodle thing on top of a Pizuki ice cream alamode thing is going to be any good. Yeah, but the monkey bread one that they didn't have sounded so good. Yeah,

that did sound really good. I love monkey bread. Yeah. I'm not really a fan of alimode either. So like, you know, I think it's like a fun novelty and I feel like it's something that you have to do when you go to BJ's because again, I cannot believe they're a pizza place. But like I I'm never really like that satisfied. It's just too sweet. Like you take something sweet and you put ice cream on top of it.

It's just diabetes. Right. It's too much for me. I can have a bite. It's definitely a shareable. And so like, yeah, BJs is good. for when you're with multiple people, you want to dessert.

Everyone gets one bite and then that's it. Yeah. I like Alamode for the something hot with something cold. Like, I like that feeling. Yeah. But yeah, from a flavor standpoint,

it is often too much for me. I think you got to separate them if you like that. You should have, you know, chase one with the other. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

Because like once you put them together, everything just gets like sloppy. And yeah, like room. temperature. Yeah. Over the decades, BJs has seen a few baton passes in its leadership. In 2021, after nearly nine years at the helm, CEO Greg Trojan stepped down and handed the reins to Greg Levin. The former, yeah, I know, you're laughing because Trojan for BJs. I get it. And I'm there with you. God. But Greg Trojan went to Greg Levin, the company's former CFO, and yes, another Greg.

this Greg on Greg action proved too good to be true. As in 2024, Levin stepped down as former Darden CFO Bradford, Richmond took over as CEO. I do think it's interesting that like someone took them from post-pandemic to 2024. Seems like he really didn't turn things around. I know that they're planning to remodel over 50% of their locations currently. So maybe that's their new guy trying to. to get in there and maybe i think everyone everyone's trying to jump on that chilies rave that chili's bandwagon now because it seems like they have kind of like taken the reins is like you know

the restaurant that's able to like draw a profit now right um so i i wouldn't be surprised i watched a business insider on and it completely forgot great chilees was like oh we're just going to be the place that everyone goes because everywhere else is too expensive because there was like a very brief overlap where like a meal at McDonald's and a meal at Chili's were pretty comparable price-wise. And that's crazy for that to be happening. Yeah. Yeah. I cannot go to McDonald's because like if I'm, you know, feeling miserable after like a bad set or something, like I'll go to McDonald's and and cheer myself up for like 15 minutes until I like feel even worse.

Right. After. But like a 2 a.m. McGriddle is not the cure for anything. So Chili's needs to open a drive-thru, I guess. BJ's isn't above having a little fun with pop culture. On April Fool's Day 2025, the chain teamed up with Nicole Snooky Polizi of Jersey Shore fame to create the Frickle Pazuki,

a wacky one-day-only mashup of BJ's classic Pazuki topped with crispy fried pickles inspired by Snooki's notorious pickle obsession. It was a sweet and salty stunt that got people talking, and some people actually dared to eat it. As a recovering Jersey Shore fan, I love this. I love that. I love Snooki. I love the situation.

I just love in 2025, they're like, Snooky is the answer. Yeah, there's still some, there's still some juice left in the tank. Let's milk the cow a little bit more. That's nuts. I have no idea why they did that. One day only and a fried pickle,

Pazuki. And I hate the way they spelled it. the frickle Pazuki F-R-Y-C-K-L-E. It just rubs me the wrong way. It's literally just got to be off of the name Pizuki and then Snooky, right? Right, but Frickle is like pickle, but fried. But I think it should have been F-R-I-C-K, but they did F-R-Y-C-K to like get fry in there. Yeah.

And it just bothers me. And it shouldn't. It really, did you try it? No, I didn't. I mean, it was one day old. Okay, and I then don't knock it until you try it. It hasn't been all smooth sailing for BJs. Like many restaurant chains, they've faced legal and public challenges over the years.

For example, a 2022 class action lawsuit alleged BJs was underpaying its tipped employees, claiming some servers made as little as 2.13 an hour while doing non-tipped work and even had to buy their own uniforms. And of course, the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 was a massive hurdle. BJ's dining rooms went dark during lockdowns, forcing the company to lean heavily on takeout, delivery, and creative digital ordering to keep the business afloat. Fortunately for them, those investments paid off and BJs emerged from the pandemic still standing. Doesn't surprise me at all. I hate that it is legal to pay someone so far under minimum wage because, quote unquote, but you make tips. Yeah, it's ridiculous.

Tips should be gravy on top of whatever your wages. It's a reward for like, I guess, like, exceptional service, like you going above and beyond, like, what you need to do. But, like, I'm not one to really complain that much about service. I don't care. Like, if they bring the food out, if they, if they bring any food out, I'm happy. Yeah. It doesn't even have to be the food that I order because I, as I mentioned before, I will still eat it. I, for me, I'm like, you have to, you're here because you have to be here.

I am here because I chose to be here. Right. I am so privileged to have someone bring a hot plate of food out to me. So like you should at bare minimum be able to completely ignore me, do the bare minimum and get paid like a livable wage. Right. 2.13 an hour. What is that? Like an eight hour shift.

That's 16 something. That's fucking crazy. Literally saying that out loud is like, oh, God, it is. Yeah. Yeah. And so then you've got all these deadbeat people out there who love getting service. They love complaining and they're going to find a free, a way to get a free meal, or they're going to come up with some excuse to not tip you.

And so, like, we've got all these fucking freeloaders that come out to restaurants who are just so privileged themselves. Chasing like a, oh, you have a buy one, get one free. And then they don't tip on the total of like what the second one would have been. They tip on like what they paid. I know. It's infuriating. BJ's expansion streak hit some impressive milestones. The company went public in 1996

when it had only six locations to its name, grew to over 100 restaurants by 2010, and by 2023 had reached about $1.2 billion in annual revenue. But rapid growth came with growing pains. Rising food and labor costs have squeezed profit margins in recent ears, prompting BJs to form a special margin improvement team to hunt for cost-saving. and boost efficiency behind the scenes.

Even so, the company remains a major player in the casual dining arena, balancing its ambitious menu, brewing operations, and guest experience while keeping an eye on the bottom line. That does sound like, how can we screw over our employees? Yeah, margin improvement team. I mean, what is that? That means lower the quality of the food. Yeah.

Get rid of the employees that have been here for a long time that are making a lot of money. Yeah. Yeah, and bring in new fresh people who are desperate for a paycheck. Yeah. I don't know. What other? I mean, yeah, literally there is no thing that seems good for the workers. That would be the outcome of a margin improvement team or, you know, whatever.

Or the customers. Or the customers. Because, like, really, you're just trying to, like, make as much money as you can for the investors, then, you know, making this the best restaurant. You know, it's it's all about, to me, it seems like, oh, this is a team that's going to come in and create the illusion of good food. Yes. You know? I mean, we've had like the mass Ciscoification of all food. Like, Cisco, the food provider.

Like, I'm not saying BJs uses them. I don't know factually. But like, they are kind of just so pervasive in the fast food and chain restaurant industry where it's just like they seem like the kings of cheapening food ingredients to like, again, those profit margins of like, oh, well, we can, this is technically bread. You can technically cook with this. But like, there's so many like bread-based or like carbid foods that I've, that I've eaten over the past couple years where like when I really think about it, from a flavor standpoint, it feels hollow. It feels like it's just like, it's filler. Yeah. When it's like bread is so good. Why are we like taking the bread out of bread? You know? I went to Universal Studios last week for my birthday. I went to Universal Studios in the rain and it was great.

Hell yeah. Five minute wait times all around. And we got a one of those big, you know, Homer Simpson donuts. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And we split it in two and my girlfriend had one and I had the other side and I bit into mine and it was just air. Like on my side, all I got was just like a, like a. a veneer of pastry. Yeah.

And then just like it was completely hollow on the inside. And she got most of it. Yeah. I didn't make that big a deal of it. But it was my birthday. It was my birthday, not yours. You ruined everything. But yeah, it was like, oh, wow.

So like, yeah, like, if I were to weigh this, like, this isn't that big of a donut. Right, right. It's not, it's not, it's definitely not a cake donut. It's a performative donut. It's a performance enhanced margin cutting donut that I just ate. And that'll do it for this week's Eat Dietz. Okay, PJ, I hope that hearing the trials one has to endure to create a successful chain has struck you with inspiration because it is now your chance to tell me about a restaurant concept of your very own. I need to make a theme song for this segment.

Give me a style of music. We're going to sing a theme right now. Funk. Funk. No one has picked funk, and I've been doing this segment a while. Oh, God, I don't even... Okay, I guess I'm channeling like Earth, Wind and Fire. This is the restaurant of your dreams.

I'm dreaming restaurants in my bed. More iconic than the Pizuki. This is a little. The restaurant of your dreams. Wasn't bad. Wasn't great, but. Well, not, yeah. Also, like, I didn't know we were doing that until you just told me.

I know. Yeah. So, like, pretty fucking good on my part. PJ, I want to know what you would do if handed the reins to make a restaurant. Something so good that this episode of the podcast would be put up in the Smithsonian Museum just for, featuring this piece of historical majesty. It must be practical, delicious, and memorable. 3-2-1, the floor is yours.

I would love to make a fah restaurant that rewards you for not choking on the bra. Okay. It's a reward-based system. Just like that. Yeah. I've never had fuh without coughing or like choking on it. This is so specific and I am so happy about it. Yeah.

So, like, you know, like those food, like those eating challenges, if you can eat this like, you know, a hundred ounce steak. Yeah. In like, a minute. Yeah. Then you, you know, like you get it for free. You get your face like a picture on the wall. Your face is just beat red. Yeah.

You're sweating. No one looks good in those photos. Yeah. Yeah. You look awful. Yeah. I would love a wall for people who have eaten like a whole bowl of fuh. You can, you don't even have to eat it fast.

You just, if you can eat it, if you can pace yourself and enjoy like one of the most delicious foods on earth without like inhaling some of it into your wind, you know, breathing hole. Uh-huh. Uh, you deserve your face on the wall. Because it's brutal. I would never get my face on the wall. Me neither. I've never eaten it and not like coughed up some. But I didn't, I, like, I didn't ever realize.

that that is a thing until you just put it to words. Yeah, it's, it's so a thing. I love, I love, I love, I love, like, the preparation,

like, it comes to you, and you can eat it right away, but like, if you care, you will get the leaves. I forgot what they're called. Yeah,

yeah, but every time I'm like, can I get the leaves and I never look up, like, what are these? If you, you know, like,

you're a pro if you can cut up those leaves and, like, add the, you know, the beans sprouts the sprouts yeah um and and and you know add like the right amount of saracha and that like little sweet sauce and you know just make it perfect and then i like to put like so much lime you know i'm a 80% lime i'm a lime head with my fah and ramen at uh have you ever had tatsu yeah i love tatsu tatsu is good it's it's a little too hearty and like a little too um

Like bold in flavor, you know, like I don't go for that like on a nice rain. That's what I did the second half of my birthday. I went from Universal Studios to getting no ho fah. I'm sure so many dummies out there are going to call it no ho foe. But well, they kind of did that to themselves. They did. Yeah. Naha fah. I don't say you should pronounce it. Yeah. But yeah, like it's just the best. I love fah. And I think that love. Fufa comes from my favorite all-time food. Love Fafa. You ever had that? It's a Filipino dish. It's like a tamarin-based kind of like soup that you add rice to. And like you can use like salmon with it or like pork.

Usually I have pork with it. That's my favorite food of all time is like cabbage and onions and stuff. And it's very soupy. But it's not very accessible. And fah is like to me the next best thing. Gotcha. Same kind of flavor profile, same brothy kind of thing. But instead of rice, you have noodles and it's so fun to eat.

So yeah, if we could like build an amusement park out of fah, that would be great. So that way I can have, I can spend my birthday in one place. Right, right. What's the name of this place? Ooh. All right. No, you say, but I do have a pitch. I want to hear your pitch.

No koffa. That's pretty good. How about Chuck? But it's spelled like choke, but because like it's pronounced fuck, call it Chuck. So don't, yeah, don't chuck. Oh, no. I can't run a business. Thanks for going over all of that with me, PJ.

I now have a better insight into what you dream about. Thank you. One last time. Not the whole song, but just that one line. This is the restaurant of your dreams. It was fine. Now let's bring things back to reality and see what other people think of the BJs that we just had lunch at in this week's Yelp from strangers. We need a little.

Yelp, A little Yelp from strangers A one star, two star, three star, four, or five, aye So get a little Yelp, a little yelp, a little yelp from strangers A little yelp, give us those complaints while you literally white. All right, this is Yelp from Strangers, our segment where we turn to Yelp and read out our favorite. One, two, three, four, and five. Five star yelp reviews of the BJs we just went to. Do you mind if I start with the first one?

Is this what it's like to be on an improv team with you? You're like, I need you to do this. No, but I do love putting people on the spot from really dumb stuff. Okay, we're singing. You have this whole five-star review pattern that you want to do. Get off my nuts. Three-star review. All right, this is a three-star review.

review from Angelo M from Los Angeles, California, April 18th, 2025. Service was nice, but slow. No sense of urgency. Not someone who is even hungry or even needs tips. Maybe someone who was used to getting tips based off their looks. Facts. Oh, facts. Yeah, our server came up with like a Christian cross earring and like it's kind of like

blinked out, didn't make eye contact with either of us. And it almost felt like we were interrupting his day by being in. Anyways, this guy continues. I'm ugly and fat A.F. So I would have to hustle if I was a server, L.O.L. Love it. I ordered one thing and was brought another. We waited so long I didn't say anything and ate it.

Remember, I'm still fat A.F. It was good, just not what I ordered. I checked the receipt after and they wrote down the wrong thing so they didn't know it was wrong. Another member of my party had cold mashed potatoes and another member ordered the salad with meat that had pieces that were too chewy slash fatty and inedible. Pizu Kizu K is always the star of the show, never disappoints. Self-parking only after 3 p.m. valet only before that. Yeah, yeah. That I hate that valet thing.

I mean, I pulled in there. I saw the valet guy start walking towards me, and then I, like, peeled out Tokyo drift style. I'm just turning around. Yeah. And then I tried going into the garage. And then I realized, like, it was a valley-only garage. And then I peeled out of there. And then I found street parking, like, 10 feet from the restaurant.

Yeah. I cannot do valets. I just think it's, it's useless. It's so useless. Like, I can, the spot. right there I can pull in. Why are you here? What are you protecting?

Yeah. You know, I don't know. Why do we even need valets, period? I don't get it. Well, especially for this setup. It makes no sense when they have a garage. Yeah, they have a garage. And if you're not going to use their garage,

there's a garage across the street that you can use for like, you know, the Burbank AMC or something. Yeah. Like you can easily walk over there. It doesn't make any sense. It doesn't make any sense. It doesn't make any sense. when you pull up to somewhere where they do not have any on-site parking.

If they do, valet, yeah, I completely agree. It's useless. And it's not like, it's like there's double spots, you know, where it's like you have to park one car in front of the other and then a valley needs to come in and switch them out. It's not even that. So like, what is the point of this? You're, I think it's detracting people from going to BJ. If you ask me outside of this podcast, hey, do you want to go to BJ's?

I'm going to go, I don't want to do valet. Right. would be the first thing that comes to my mind. So I agree. With the fat A.F stuff, you know, that's, you're fine, you're beautiful the way you are. I don't need to bring that in. He also said he's ugly. And ugly, yeah, your looks. I, I am not picturing anybody when I'm reading this for review. Yeah. Your review is not like, yeah, I'm sorry. You know, I'm sorry that you feel that way, but, you know, just change your perspective. I think you're beautiful and there's always someone out there for you.

I like how you're assuming they don't have someone. I mean, come on. It's bad enough. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm totally kidding. No, it's love yourself.

Yeah. He concludes, I usually enjoy BJs, but this one left a bad taste in my mouth. A. BJs, right? And then he says, AEO, pause, which I don't know what that means, but that is how he ended it. Ayo, pause, and then that's the end. That's the end. Okay.

One star review. All right. One star review from Marvin G. Los Angeles, California. 27 reviews. I may be overblowing this situation, but I called prior to ordering to check if they honored the Pizukey Tuesday special, since everything is takeout now with the pandemic going on. And the guy told me yes. So I called again in a few minutes later to place my order because I didn't want it sitting until I knew I could pick it up.

When I was told my total for two Pizuikis was $16 plus, I mentioned that I had spoken to someone earlier who told me they honored the special and asked to get it checked. After looking, the hostess adjusted the total, and it seemed all as well. then when I get home, I see my receipt slash sticker thing. And it kind of upset me when next to my name, it said, right price, as if they chose to remember me as the person who corrected their total or the person who wanted to be charged the right price. See image below. Like I said, I could be. I think this is like such a non-issue. I just, I don't know.

And I don't understand and I don't care. Like, you're, it just, you seem insecure. Like they wrote this order for Marvin Wright Price as opposed to like Mark. Like if they put Marvin dipshit or something, I'd be like, okay, yeah, be upset. Marvin Wright Price is not, that's not a bad nickname. That's not like, I don't think there was any emotional charge in putting him in the system as Wright Price. I think it was just a way of like reminding who checked him out like, hey, give him the deal. Yeah, it could also be like at the end of the night whenever they're going through.

the receipts and it's like, hey, you didn't charge this person. Oh, right price. Yeah, that's because they had to, I had to adjust it for them. Yeah. It might just be like a note to remind the person like, oh yeah, that's why I did that. Yeah. They don't get in trouble. But no, your feelings got hurt.

Come on. From right price. Yeah. A one star review. Like I said, I could be overthinking. You are. You are. But I found it rather rude to include that anywhere I could see it.

Sorry, but with the type of customer service, I'd give zero stars if I could, but one will suffice to say, I will get my Pizuki's at the right price. So you got what you wanted. You just didn't like the way you got it. Yeah. Also, this has my new favorite catchphrase. I'd give it zero stars if I could. Zero stars for what? You got the Pizu Kizu Kyi.

You ordered two of them. You enjoyed it. You had a good time. You just felt you needed to be offended by something that is so inconsequential. So mundane, that's going to give you zero stars and potentially get someone who is making $2.13 an hour get them a bad rap from their manager. Like, shut up. Like, people are so fucking privileged. I can't stand it.

This is why don't go out to restaurants. Yeah. I don't want to be associated with these people. Hey there. It's me, Michael. And now that we're in season four, I'm adding more content to my Patreon. Not only can you hear the extended. Yelp from Stranger segment with three more reviews, and not only can you get an exclusive

full episode covering an extra chain restaurant on the last day of each month, but I've added an extra chat with my guests where we discussed their go-to fast food and chain restaurants and talk about why they love them so much. I hope you'll come check it out, and you can get your first week completely free of charge. That's patreon.com slash fine dining podcast. I appreciate and love you all. back to the episode. And that's part one. Tune in next week as we tell you what we thought about our meal at BJ's. In the meantime, PJ, where can people get more of you online?

I'm on Instagram at P-E-E-J McCormick. Such a good handle. You can, yeah, peach. Peage. Oh, is that what it is? I thought it was P-E-H-H-H-H-H-J. No, no, no. My mom used to call me Peach growing up.

I have a couple handles is if you want to follow my Herald team, it's Lohan Improv, and then also my newest show at UCB is called The Midnight Rumble. And you can follow those on Instagram. It's very fun. And you can follow the show on Instagram and TikTok at Fine Dining Podcast. I'm on Blue Sky, but never use it, fine dining podcast. But I do have a Discord, and you can come chat with me, chat about our episodes, post food pictures, post Yelp reviews, post pet photos. all that fun stuff. And you can get the extended Yelp

from Stranger's segments as well as an exclusive restaurant episode every single month over at patreon.com slash fine dining podcast. You can also see me performing at the shared experience studio every second and fourth Sunday night with my musical improv team guest lecture,

a show where we are experts on everything and we'll improvise a musical about whatever you want to learn about. In the meantime, we'll just be sitting here waiting on our table one week before we talk about our meal at BJ's. Thanks so much

for watching. I'll see you next week. Have a fine day. Waiting on our table, waiting on our table. Step is done and we had some fun now. We're waiting on our table, waiting on our table. Join us next time we're stuck in line.

Waiting on our table, waiting on our table. We're so hungry. On our table. We got a table. We got to be. Continue I search for mediocrity Yeah I'm going to stay We need

We can dig all We're heading on Continue when we see you next week