May 4—BJ's Restaurant and Brew-house, a national chain, hopes to open a location in a new stand-alone building at the Mall of New Hampshire in Manchester.

The planning board is set to hear a site plan and planned development application to build an approximately 7,662-square-foot restaurant in the parking lot near the former Sears, which is now Dave & Buster's and Dick's Sporting Goods, at 6 p.m. Wednesday.

The site plans call for elimination of approximately 105 parking spaces, according to drawings.

Founded in 1978, BJ's, headquartered in Huntington Beach, Calif., owns and operates 213 casual dining restaurants in 29 states, according to its website. This will be the first in New Hampshire.

The restaurant is known for its slow-roasted entrees, like prime rib, along with deep dish pizza and "EnLIGHTened Entrees," including cherry chipotle glazed salmon, according to its website. Craft beer has been a specialty since 1996. The company has brewing operations in five states and works with independent third party craft brewers.

The scheduled opening of the restaurant is unknown if the plans are approved.

In a statement to investors last month, Greg Levin, CEO and president, spoke of restarting the company's "new restaurant development engine." The company expects to open eight new restaurants this year, of which two already opened, according to a news release.

The company reported $298.7 million total revenues in the first quarter 2022, up 33.8% from the first quarter last year.

"With BJ's unique positioning, high standard of execution and improved restaurant staffing levels, we are working aggressively to build back even more dining room traffic, while benefiting from off premise sales that are double pre-pandemic levels," Levin said.

The company hopes to nearly double its restaurants to 425 locations. A representative of the company did not return a phone call and email seeking comment.