Popular chain restaurant and brewhouse to open first western NY location in Henrietta
Romano’s Macaroni Grill, which closed in Henrietta early in the coronavirus pandemic and never reopened, is being replaced by something entirely new.
Last week, the Italian chain restaurant’s stucco-and-stone building was torn down, and soon its space in Market Square plaza on Jefferson Road will give rise to BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse.
It will be the Huntington Beach, California-based chain’s first location in the Finger Lakes or western New York regions and its fourth in New York state. The three others are in Valley Stream on Long Island; Nanuet, about an hour’s drive north of Manhattan; and the town of Colonie, outside Albany.
Plans for the Henrietta location call for a 7,662-square-foot building and 950-square-foot patio. So, the structure will be about the same size as neighboring 110 Grill, which also has patio seating.
The company received needed approvals from town officials in May. At that time, BJ’s representative Jared Taylor said the restaurants typically open six and a half months after the start of construction. On Dec. 9, a spokesperson told the Democrat and Chronicle the hope is to open the Henrietta location by mid-2023.
The business has no relationship to BJ’s Wholesale Club warehouse stores.
It was founded in 1978 with one restaurant in Santa Ana, California, and has grown to more than 200 U.S. locations, which are company-owned, not franchised, Taylor said.
BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse menu
The BJ’s Restaurant menu includes steaks and slow-roasted entrees, burgers, sandwiches, pasta dishes, pizza, a children’s menu, desserts and $10 lunch specials.
Among the appetizers are regular and boneless chicken wings made with a variety of sauces and drizzled or served with ranch dressing. Who knows how that will fly in this region, where blue cheese dressing is the standard. Although in the past, Buffalo Bills wide receiver Isaiah McKenzie and even head coach Sean McDermott have said they prefer ranch to blue cheese.
Despite “Brewhouse” being part of the name, and the fact that BJ’s serves its own line of craft beers on tap, “This is not a restaurant that morphs into a bar at night,” Taylor told the town. “This is absolutely a family establishment.”
The Henrietta BJ’s will sell packaged beer and wine for off-site consumption, too, he said. However, unlike at some other BJ's locations, no beer will be brewed on-site.
He added there will be no live entertainment. “No band, no dancing or anything like that,” he said.
BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse hours
Planned hours of operation are 11 a.m. to midnight Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to midnight Saturday and Sunday.
BJ’s Restaurant buildings are meant to evoke a contemporary American brewhouse, with composite wood siding, stone accents and metal awnings. The spaces also include oversized windows and fire tables on the patios.
BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse to open on former site of Romano’s Macaroni Grill in Henrietta NY
Romano’s Macaroni Grill opened at 760 Jefferson Road during the late 1990s. At one time an immensely popular destination, it served casual Italian-American fare in a Tuscan-inspired dining room set off with strings of white lights, white tablecloths and large arrangements of white gladiolus. Upon request, servers would sing opera arias at your table.
Founded in 1988 in Leon Springs, Texas, Macaroni Grill had 230 restaurants at its peak.
It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in late 2017, citing a downturn in the casual-dining industry, and emerged from it the following February.
Now headquartered in Denver, it has 40 remaining locations, according to its website.
Reporter Marcia Greenwood covers general assignments. Send story tips to mgreenwo@rocheste.gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @MarciaGreenwood.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse to open location in Henrietta NY
