If you want to enjoy a pint of delicious, freshly-brewed beer in a gorgeous environment, head to BJ’s Restaurant and Brewery in Roseville. The huge space is strikingly attractive, with deep carnelian red and brick walls, a lengthy bar with glistening hardwood floors, and a lower dining area packed with a sea of highly varnished tables. And while there’s an industrial flavor to the space (you can’t miss the Rosie the Riveter-style pictures on the far wall, depicting muscled workers laboring in field of grains), this is an expensively appointed and decidedly elegant venue in which to slurp your house-brewed Harvest Hefeweizen or the sassy and very bitter Piranha Pale Ale. BJ’s menu is enormous, and it can take a while to read through the selections. Be assured there’s an appealing menu item for everyone in your party—entrées range from chicken-fried steak and a garden vegetable-stuffed potato to Cajun pasta and an oven-roasted ham and pineapple deep-dish pizza. Recommended items include the moist and meaty baby back pork ribs, doused with a pungent barbecue sauce prepared from the brewery’s own Jeremiah Red Ale; and the hefty oven-baked meat lasagna—a real rib-sticker prepared with ground beef, Italian sausage and layers of pasta, ricotta, mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses. If you have noisy kids, this is a great place to bring them; the space can be deafeningly loud on busy days. There’s also an element of visual overload—I counted eight televisions scattered throughout the restaurant. There is an enormous television hanging over the bar that’s bisected into four different screens, which feature mostly sports events, and trying to look at that for very long was a dizzying experience. But, after a pint or two of the full-flavored, house-brewed Tatonka Stout, maybe it would all make more sense. — Kira O'Donnell

Insider tip: There are three other BJ’s locations throughout the region, but Roseville is the only one with an in-house brewery:
2730 East Bidwell St., Folsom, (916) 404-2000
9237 Laguna Springs Drive, Elk Grove, (916) 753-1500
3531 N. Freeway Blvd., Natomas; (916) 570-1327

Reservations: Accepted for parties of 10 or more

Payment methods: AmEx, Discover Card, MasterCard, Visa

Alcohol: Full bar Corkage fee: $5

Hours: Sunday–Thursday: 11 a.m.–12 a.m.
Friday–Saturday: 11 a.m.–1 a.m.