We didn't come to restaurants from construction. We came to construction from restaurants.

TJ Construction exists because we spent 25 years learning — the hard way — exactly what makes a restaurant space work, and what quietly kills it.

Our story in this industry started in 2007, working our way through restaurants from New York City to Los Angeles. We learned the business the way it's really learned: on the line, behind the bar, and in the back office at 1 a.m. counting the drawer.

Then we bet on ourselves. We opened our first food cart in Portland, Oregon — small, scrappy, and a real education in doing a lot with a tiny footprint. That cart led to our first brick-and-mortar location on the Oregon coast, and from there it kept growing. At our peak we were running five locations at once across three states — Oregon, Washington and Idaho.

All told, we've opened more than ten locations — everything from full ground-up build-outs to turnkey takeovers of existing spaces. We've signed the leases, drawn the floor plans, sat across from the health inspector, ordered the equipment, trained the crews, and lived with every decision long after the contractor drove away.

That's the difference. Most contractors build restaurants. We've run them.

So when we look at your plans, we don't just see walls and code — we see your Friday-night rush, your ticket times, your labor cost, and the ten feet your cook will walk a thousand times a night. We build to that. If any contractor understands this business, it's us.

What we stand for