WE HAVE A GREAT HISTORY

A Popular Neighborhood Stop

The Beer Club, although small at the time, started to increase when Jack & Kathy started making weekly trips to Houston, Dallas, San Antonio & Austin to pick up different imported beers not yet available in South Texas. Bud, Miller, Lone Star, Coors, and yes even Pearl reigned as kings in these parts. The Imported Beer Drinkers Club started to grow as did sales, & soon we had people in the Beer Club who visited Corpus Christi from several different countries around the world. By the early 1990s Jack & Kathy along with their son Christopher, who was now old enough to work full time, decided to add on the “Backroom,” expanding the original 1500 ft2 restaurant to 5,300 ft2. B&J’s started to grow, winning up to 4 Best Of The Best Awards from the Caller Times newspaper every year, & it soon became one of the top restaurants in Corpus Christi.

B & J’s Pizza started in the 1970’s in the Habeeb shopping center located at 6335 S. Padre Island Drive as a small party store/takeout pizza store. It was started by a couple from Michigan named Betty & Jerry, hence B&J’s. It was later purchased by Don & Fran McMullen in the late ’70’s and turned into a pizza restaurant/computer store. The restaurant out-grew the computer part of the business and became a popular neighborhood stop. In 1987 Jack & Kathy Baker had become good friends with Don & Fran and decided to buy the pizza restaurant. It has remained B&J’s because Kathy’s maiden name was Jarvis before marring Jack in 1970 (Baker & Jarvis.)

Jack & Kathy started making changes to the menu & the pizza: no more canned veggies, fresh spices and herbs in the pizza sauce, fresh hand-minced garlic & sliced mushrooms, etc.

By 2005 it was time to expand, Jack worked with local architects to design his own restaurant building design. In May 2007 B&J’s # 2, located at the corner of S. Staples and Timbergate, on the south side, opened an 8,000 ft2 building.

Our future plans are to continue to grow & maintain the best tasting & best quality pizza & sandwich you can find anywhere. We have grown from a small 1,500 ft2 restaurant in a small shopping center with a total sales of slightly over $80,000 our first year to 2 restaurants totaling 13,300 ft2 with sales over $1,7500,000. We are nationally ranked 53rd in the top 100 Independent Pizza Restaurants in the United States.