BJ's Restaurants, Inc. Reports Financial Results for the First Quarter of Fiscal 2009

BJ's Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ: BJRI) today reported financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2009 that ended on Tuesday, March 31, 2009.

Total revenues increased approximately 18% to $102.4 million compared to $86.8 million for the same quarter last year. Comparable restaurant sales decreased by only 0.1% during the first quarter of fiscal 2009 compared to flat comparable restaurant sales for the same quarter last year. Net income and diluted net income per share for the first quarter of fiscal 2009 increased approximately 20% to $3.8 million and 17% to $0.14, respectively, compared to the first quarter of last year.

'Our leadership team was pleased with our overall performance for the first quarter of 2009,' commented Jerry Deitchle, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. 'Despite the continuing economic recession and its related pressure on consumer discretionary spending, our comparable restaurant sales were essentially flat during the quarter compared to an estimated decrease of 4.2% in comparable casual dining restaurant sales reported by the Knapp-Track(TM) survey for the first quarter. We believe that our solid comparable sales performance is a strong testament to the broad approachability of the BJ's concept to all consumer demographics, coupled with our unwavering focus to deliver a higher quality dining experience at a price point that remains the same or lower than most of our 'mass market' casual dining competitors. In addition to our favorable comparable sales performance, we believe that our restaurant operators and support team did an effective job of managing controllable costs and expenses during the quarter. While we currently believe that the tough economy will continue to keep pressure on overall casual dining customer traffic for at least the rest of 2009, BJ's will continue to work hard to outperform its peers and steadily capture additional market share in the estimated $80 billion casual dining segment.'

The Company successfully opened two new restaurants during the first quarter of 2009 (in Gainesville, Florida, and Henderson, Nevada). 'We are very pleased with initial sales volumes for our first two new restaurants of 2009,' said Deitchle. 'Our restaurant in Gainesville set a new sales record for a non-California BJ's restaurant by achieving over $150,000 of opening week sales, a record they subsequently broke the following week. Additionally, sales for our new Henderson, Nevada, restaurant (in the Las Vegas market) continue to track well in excess of $100,000 per week.' The Company currently remains on track to open as many 9 to 11 new restaurants during 2009 and thereby achieve a targeted increase of 15% to 16% in total restaurant operating weeks for the year. The Company currently expects to open no new restaurants during the second quarter, as many as four to five new restaurants during the third quarter, and as many as three to four new restaurants during the fourth quarter. The actual number and timing of new restaurant openings is subject to a number of factors outside of the Company's control, including weather conditions and factors under the control of landlords, contractors and regulatory/licensing authorities.

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