Feasting on BJ's Restaurants Stock

As I recently shared, I have done a 180^o turn on restaurants.  When I wrote earlier this month, I mentioned BJ's Restaurants (BJRI) (12.16, $320mm) as one that I wanted to explore a bit more closely.  Well, I paid the price for researching it, as it jumped 20% over the following week.  I bought some yesterday near 12.  The stock has declined from 24 over the past 11 months, so it is still on sale despite the sharp jump.

While the BJ's concept isn't exactly the greatest novelty since sliced bread, I do believe that it is a strong concept upon which the company executes extremely well.  The company began as a Southern California pizza chain 30 years ago and transformed itself into more of a full-scale restaurant when it began brewing its own beer in 1996.  The restaurant serves over 100 items and is considered to be value-oriented in the casual dining space.  I happened to visit a BJ's in San Antonio earlier this week and found the contemporary atmosphere to be quite appealing, the food delicious, the service impeccable and the price quite reasonable.  My kids gave it unsolicited rave reviews.  But I am a stock guy, not a restaurant analyst.  I reviewed the recent conference call, the 10-K, the most recent proxy, the website and their investor presentation, and it is those data sources that give me the confidence to invest.