BJ’s Restaurants CEO Lyle Tick has observed today’s customer dynamic unfolding through a couple of avenues. If you look at the endless string of data reports on the subject, you’d assume, understandably, the diner was under some degree of stress.
He views what’s taking shape differently, however: One, is what Tick refers to as “durable and disposable transactions.” The kind of traffic a brand like BJ’s, and other casual-dining chains, competes for falls under this distinction. Or, “the social splurge space.”
“Whether it’s the weekly, a couple of times a month, I’m going out with friends. I’m going out with family. It’s an experience-based thing. And I think people protect those things,” Tick said during the Barclays Annual Global Consumer Staples Conference.
“Disposable transactions” are occasions more like weekday lunch or grabbing a quick dinner on the way home. Customers, he said, tend to shed such visits in favor of guarding their social trips. “And so, that’s where we compete,” Tick said. “That’s where we do well. And I think that’s potentially a dynamic why we’re doing well.”
It’s a present landscape, he continued, favoring some of BJ’s peers (like Chil’s) where a spread of winners and losers has formed among full-service chains; a time where consumers, when they do decide to open their wallets, are prioritizing a great exchange for their dollars. The brands thriving, Tick said, are those investing in their value proposition holistically.
“Their product, their service, their atmosphere, and making sure they have a place where their team members and their guests want to be,” he said. “And those folks are winning more. I think, thankfully, over the past couple of years, we’ve made pretty significant progress across those areas.”
This larger macro picture might be fueling BJ’s, but it’s merely a piece of much-larger jigsaw for a brand coming off one of its best periods in years. The chain posted same-store sales growth of 6.5 percent in Q2 as traffic leapt 8.3 percent. It marked BJ’s eighth consecutive run of comps and traffic growth and the loftiest comps bump in three years and highest traffic in four.
Mother’s and Father’s Day sales spiked north of 8 and 3 percent, respectively, year-over-year, and more than 80 stores broke daily or weekly records. And regarding Tick’s notion of a pressured consumer, BJ’s didn’t feel it—it notched growth through all geographies, dayparts, and channels. Sales increases were evenly distributed across the week as well.
Again, he feels guests are simply doing what they have to so they can socialize and indulge. BJ’s is there to fill that need-state when it arises.
And in recent quarters, as Tick, who was named CEO last June after serving as president and chief concept officer (he was formerly brand president of Buffalo Wild Wings from 2018 to 2023), kept sharing industry-fronting results with investors, he was often asked to compartmentalize BJ’s success.
In other terms, was there one thing driving the surge?
That’s a byproduct of life on Wall Street, where analysts value quarter-to-quarter recaps as much as long strips of growth.
Tick said, from his view, it doesn’t quite work that way. BJ’s doesn’t have a “one thing” to explain its upturn. Over the past two years, it’s been a combination of foundation-setting plans alongside marketable wins, starting with operations.
Pillar fixes showed in guest and employee metrics, Tick said. BJ’s then followed by unlocking “the power of the Pizookie,” building an everyday value platform, improving product—beginning with pizza—and moving through burgers and its chicken sandwich. Also, “putting a fair bit” of money back into facilities and driving BJ’s remodel program.
During this multi-year stretch, the brand added $500,000 on the average-unit volume line, roughly $220,000 of restaurant-level cash flow, and expanded margins 240 basis points. “You get, kind of the ‘we want you to be building a long-term better business and then it’s, but what happened this quarter?’ And I think we try and be really focused on building a better business over time,” Tick said.
Todd Wilson, EVP and CFO, added BJ’s trajectory has inspired investors to ask about development. The brand is looking to open two stores this year as it focuses on internal unit-level economics. Still, he said, BJ’s is actively seeking new sites, signing leases, and negotiating with landlords. “And so, the proof points are over the last eight quarters of same-store sales growth, traffic growth, dollar and margin expansion that we’re building the pipeline,” he said. “[It] just takes some time when you’re talking 12- to 24-month lead times.”
Trends in the trenches, and traffic-boosting ideas
Tick fielded a question on GLP-1s. His answer wasn’t unlike the opening point around consumer discretion. BJ’s was recently conducting a market test for shareable sides. Which one outperformed the pack? The most decadent, over-the-top feature.
“And I remember hearing a Delta chef talk about, he puts healthy things on the Delta menu and everybody gets the steak and the potatoes,” he said. “And so, I think, what people say and what they do can be a little different. I do think our occasion—that social splurge occasion—is a little insulated.”
More broadly, Tick believes customers are focused on finding real food, cooked fresh and made well. That’s something BJ’s is hyper-attentive about as it innovates through categories.
A lot of BJ’s wide-ranging menu is from-scratch. Going forward, as it evolves sections, it’s asking how to focus on being scratch “where it matters, fresh, real, made-for-you food that makes people feel good about the stuff they’re putting in their body,” Tick said.
“I think over time that’s going to continue to be true as long as it’s craveable,” he added. “I haven’t seen anything that has people choosing something healthy that isn’t craveable.”
The core of BJ’s business surrounds food, product, and menu. Like he shared, Tick circled pizza, burgers, and chicken sandwiches as areas of need after being elevated to the role.
With all the chatter around technology and innovation, what BJ’s serves will always be the conversation that gets Tick the most excited, he said, and a continual journey. “We’re a restaurant company, right?” he said.
But as culinary work matures, BJ’s refined a fresh prototype and its brand standards, as well as how the company expresses who it is—all things that will crystalize as BJ’s heads into next year and builds a proof of concept with the store. Changes will manifest in physical buildings and BJ’s total experience, from menus and engineering to plateware and cutlery.
The road here and what’s ahead
The brand reached this inflection by starting at the center. Tick said BJ’s knows customers who visit thanks to seasonal Pizookie launches show up again.
And like some of the comments made by Chili’s in past months around turning trial via core items into lasting gains, Tick wanted to use Pizzokies as a way to reintroduce customers to a better restaurant. “And therefore, as we bring new people in, in theory, some of those people are going to have a good time and become customers. So, there’s a flywheel there,” he said.
When seasonal Pizookies hit a nerve (the current is a Spooky version with Halloween sprinkles), like they did in Q2 (in that case a Biscoff option), they resonate in particular with young customers, like high school and college kids, Tick said. “Recruiting that next generation into our restaurant,” he said, “I’ll take that every day of the week.”
Internally, BJ’s covers a dynamic it calls “Pizookie trial checks.” You’ll see a bunch of appetizers, Pizookies, and some drinks. These aren’t discounted checks necessarily, but from a dollar amount they’re lower than normal orders. Importantly, though, they’re a sign people are discovering BJ’s.
The brand has a $13 Pizookie Meal Deal that, likewise, drives acquisition and repeat visits.
Tick said, when he unpacks overall performance, sales for BJ’s have been consistent. It’s not evolving toward a “lumpy business” where it’s only growing during discount days or special launches.
Wilson added, over the past year or so, mix shows customers gravitating to areas of the menu the company highlighted. Guests are ordering the pizza BJ’s reinvented last fall, burgers upgraded earlier this year, and the chicken sandwiches fine-tuned more recently. It’s pulled some people out of higher-priced items like steaks and Slo Roast. Yet all are benefiting categories from a sales and margin angle.
“As you look forward, it gives us confidence that as we reinvent those future sections, we’ll be able to push people back there to items that, one, they certainly enjoy and have higher satisfaction, and two, that have favorable business financials for us,” Wilson said.
Pizza represents about 6–7 percent of BJ’s sales mix, but touches 20 percent of checks. Tick said the brand ideated there because, as shown, it’s on a lot of orders. But also, it’s BJ’s founding product and something he didn’t feel it could afford to let guests down on.
“I’m a brand guy,” he said. “So, I start from, are we clear in our brand positioning? Are we clear in our consumer” And then, is your foundation strong?”
Guest satisfaction in pizza had been eroding. Sales were lagging. BJ’s had to get its day one equity renovated before it could look at burger, handhelds, etc.
Between those three categories (burgers, pizza, chicken sandwiches), it’s about 25 percent of sales. Wilson explained, however, one of BJ’s strengths is its large menu. Meaning, there’s plenty of whitespace to keep making changes.
Tick said steaks and Slo Roast is a bucket BJ’s is now spending a lot of time on. Similarly, they’re core to the brand and touch a lot of checks. There’s work taking place with salads, too, and soon, specialty entrees. “Were going to touch every category of the menu over the next 12 to 18 months as we ultimately look to get to a menu that we feel like holistically is a more compelling offering,” he said.
Circling back, Tick explained a lot of what’s showing up in performance, on milestones like Mother’s and Father’s Day, and otherwise, is operational rooted. COO Christpher Pinsak, promoted in January (he was EVP and chief restaurant operations officer since September 2024 and SVP of operations from January 2010 to then), has keyed on ensuring stores had clean shoulder periods. So, coming out of dayparts, not creating false waits, and moving people through full hands, in and out of the kitchen; making sure tables were never un-bussed for more than a “couple of minutes,” and, plainly, creating a sense of urgency and hustle inside locations.
On top, Tick said, BJ’s talked about how about a third of restaurants touted an activity-based labor model, which is an AI forecasting tool centered on getting the right employees in the right place at the right time.
That informed BJ’s it needed more people during peak hours and less in nonpeak to push throughput and optimize volume coming through restaurants.
And then, Tick continued, shoring up smaller things, like how employees entered orders and sequencing on the KDS.
“There’s a constant feedback loop with our GMs, with our executive kitchen managers as we’re optimizing how things come from the front of house into the back of house and then come back through,” Tick said. “And it’s a continual improvement process. But the thing that’s exciting is, again, you see our heavy hitters being able to churn more traffic and churn more volume. And so, it just gives you a sense of how high is up.”
BJ’s is also devising ways to grow its loyalty base. Those customers today bump average frequency from just under two visits a year to closer to four.
Tick said there are myriad benefits, naturally, including learning about core users and understanding how to cater to them. It also unravels a clearer picture of who the BJ’s loyalist is and how the company might be able to do lookalike targeting outside of restaurants.
BJ’s made a change last year after noticing the sign-up hook—get a free Pizookie immediately—was driving trial but not necessarily second visits. BJ’s tweaked to where users earned the offer on their next trip. That resulted in fewer sign-ups, Tick said, but more people returning “a lot more often.”
He noted it’s evened out and BJ’s is growing its active loyalty pool again (a group of people transacting within six to 12 months).
That, Tick said, is what BJ’s wants to drill down on. How many users are in the program can often be a vanity metric.
BJ’s wasn’t doing the best job asking customers about loyalty, from a server script of view. It waited until the end of meals, which Tick felt was a missed opportunity to make a customer feel recognized and important before they ordered.
“When you go and ask about it at the end of the meal, if somebody has already decided, I want my check and I want to go, they’re not at that point going to want to sign up and go through the process and give you their phone number and do all of that,” he said.
So, BJ’s flipped the script, so to speak. And it’s sparked a boon of sign-ups.
“It’s funny how much just the execution at the restaurant and some of that sequencing can make a big difference,” Tick said.
