CJ’s Beach House: Fresh seafood with a new fine dining room

The dining experience at CJ’s Beach House includes ordering from a dynamic menu and taking in the picturesque views of Birch Bay.

Owner Christine Niemann is from the Free State of Bavaria in southeast Germany. She moved to Vancouver, B.C. in the 1980s, which is where she met and married Jack Niemann, a restaurateur who opened about 50 restaurants throughout his career.

The two came to Blaine and Birch Bay during the 2010s as they continued their journey of opening restaurants in Canada and the U.S. Christine has built on the legacy she and Jack built after he died in 2016.

The large restaurant at 7878 Birch Bay Drive has been a reliable place to eat in Birch Bay for 12 years, Christine said.

“The support of the community is wonderful,” Christine said. “Business has been fantastic.”

The restaurant stays true to Jack’s roots. CJ’s features seasonings and secrets that Jack crafted to bring taste and quality to the menu.

Christine’s roots lie in her German origin. Her father owned an alpine hotel in Bavaria, where Christine grew up skiing, skating, and learning the basics of a hotel business. 

She attended a hotel school near Salzburg, Austria, where she learned everything about the hotel business like the front desk, dining service and more. 

She and her brother were supposed to take over the family hotel, but her father had to sell it to the former Sultan of Oman Qaboos bin Said Al Said, who made it private property.

“My father sold it because you couldn’t refuse the king of Oman,” Christine said.

Last month, CJ’s added a new dining room called CJ’s Iron Grill that offers a finer dining experience. 

“I thought it would be nice for Birch Bay to have a nice dining area,” Christine said. “It’s a totally different menu.”

The Iron Grill has a menu that changes every four weeks, but right now it features dishes like calamari, lobster, lamb shank, steaks and more.

CJ’s main dining floor is where most of the community is used to getting fish and chips, burgers, ribs and everything in between. 

“In the summertime we sell about 10,000 fish and chip pieces a month,” Christine said. “Every year we do more business.”

The menu for CJ’s is changed every six months to avoid monotony, but the customer favorites always stick around.

“My goal is to always offer the highest quality and freshest food available,” Christine said.

Restaurant recommendation: Christine recommends readers try the lobster and shrimp mac and cheese or the Niemann’s real reuben on rye.

This article is part of a series in The Northern Light highlighting Blaine and Birch Bay restaurants.