P.J. Whelihan’s opens Monday in the the Shoppes at Belmont, taking a roughly 6,000-square foot space near Fine Wine & Good Spirits store at the new shopping center at Fruitville Pike and Route 30.
The sports-themed restaurant has seating inside for 156, including space for 20 at the bar. An outside patio has table space for 48.
Booths line the edge of the dining room, just below the 22 large televisions that ring the walls, including a 10-by-10-foot television centered above the bar.
The food menu has burgers, salads, sandwiches and a variety of entrees as well as chicken wings, which come with 12 different sauces.
The drinks menu is highlighted by 36 beers on tap which include some from Lancaster area brewers. There is also a full line of cocktails.
The Lancaster restaurant, which will operate with around 70 employees, will the the 17th P.J. Whelihan’s for the P.J.W. Restaurant group, whose other restaurants are The Pour House, Treno Pizza Bar and The Chop House.
P.J.W. Restaurant Group was started by Robert Platzer, who opened his first restaurant in the Poconos in 1983. Today the company, which is based in Haddonfield, New Jersey, operates 22 restaurants, mostly in the Philadelphia area.
The P.J. Whelihan’s in Lancaster has the company’s latest restaurant design, giving a more sleek, modern look to the bars that had previously been in the style of an Irish pub, said Remo Crouse, the restaurant’s opening general manager.
