Gordon Biersch was started by Dan Gordon and Dean Biersch.  The first restaurant was in Palo Alto, then San Jose, then San Francisco.  San Francisco has grown to become the #1 restaurant in the chain in beer sales.

Dan and Dean no longer own the restaurants.  There is a law in California that says you can't produce more than a certain barrelage of beer and distribute in restaurants you also own.  Since they recently opened a production brewery in San Jose, they decided to sell the restaurants off the Big River Brewing (now known as Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant).  Dan and Dean continue to own and operate the production brewery (known as Gordon Biersch Brewing Company).

Gordon Biersch has been successful by marketing itself as sort of a 'theme' restaurant - kind of like a Chili's or something.  Every restaurant is eerily similar.  Tables, chairs - even the art on the walls is identical.

They feature (4) full bodied and authentic German lagers, with (4) seasonals on throughout the year.

Here you can see the front with the 40,000 pound silo.

The brewery has seen a pretty large increase in business due to the new baseball park just 4 blocks down the Embarcadero.  The brewery sold 2341 barrels in 2000!  The next busiest Gordon Biersch sold only 1600.  That's quite an ass kicking.