Hollywood actress Sydney Sweeney has named the Pizookie from BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse as one of her all-time favorite desserts, a loyalty she traces back to family dinners growing up in the Pacific Northwest.
Sweeney, the actress and business owner best known for roles in HBO's Euphoria and The White Lotus, made the declaration in a 2024 interview with Vogue. Sitting down with senior editor Margaux Anbouba, she talked about the California-based casual dining chain the way most people talk about a hometown diner, with real affection and zero pretense.
It is a small story, but a refreshing one: a young star who grew up in Washington state and Idaho before moving to Los Angeles as a teenager, and who still gets excited about an $8.49 skillet cookie topped with ice cream. In a celebrity culture that runs on high-end tasting menus and velvet-rope reservations, Sweeney's pick is the kind of straightforward, middle-class taste that most Americans recognize instantly.
In her Vogue interview, Sweeney told Anbouba she discovered BJ's long before she ever set foot on a soundstage.
"I started coming here with my family when I was really young."
She didn't hedge about what keeps her coming back, either.
"I am a huge cookie and ice cream fan, and they make this thing called a Pizookie that I love."
The Pizookie, a warm cookie baked in a small pizza pan and served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, has been BJ's signature dessert for years. The chain's own website calls it "world-famous," and with more than 200 locations across several states, it has built a loyal following around the item. Eight core flavors anchor the menu: Chocolate Chunk, Salted Caramel, Hot Fudge Brownie, Strawberry Shortcake, Cookies 'N' Cream, Triple Chocolate Made With Ghirardelli, White Chocolate Macadamia Nut, and Sugar Cookie.
At roughly $8.49 a pop, or $5 on the chain's "Pizookie Tuesdays" promotion, it is one of the more affordable indulgences on any casual dining menu. BJ's also runs a weekday Pizookie Meal Deal for $13 that bundles one of eight popular entrees with a personal-sized Pizookie.
Sweeney doubled down on the endorsement in a separate interview with Complex, conducted around the time of a viral sports-betting advertisement she appeared in. Asked about her birthday, September 12, she said she planned to spend it simply.
"...with my close friend and my loved ones, and usually also a Pizookie."
No Michelin-starred restaurant. No private chef. A chain-restaurant dessert. That tracks with the kind of no-frills upbringing Sweeney has described publicly, splitting her childhood between Washington and Idaho before chasing an acting career in Los Angeles as a teenager.
Whether BJ's has any formal endorsement deal with Sweeney is unclear. Nothing in her public statements suggests one, and the comments read as organic rather than scripted. That distinction matters. Paid celebrity plugs are a dime a dozen. An actress voluntarily naming a casual dining chain in two separate interviews, unprompted, carries a different weight with consumers, and with investors watching BJ's navigate a tough stretch.
The chain has dealt with scattered restaurant closures over the past three years, part of the broader pressure on sit-down dining that has squeezed margins across the industry. Rising food costs, labor challenges, and shifting consumer habits have forced casual dining brands to fight harder for every seat.
A celebrity endorsement, even an unpaid one, can move the needle. BJ's is not the first chain to benefit from a famous fan. Selena Gomez, the actress and singer from Grand Prairie, Texas, has been an open devotee of Texas Roadhouse for years. She named it alongside Whataburger and Taco Bueno as a favorite during a Snapchat Live session with fans. In 2016, she was spotted eating at a Texas Roadhouse location and took pictures with staff and customers.
Texas Roadhouse leaned into the moment. The chain posted on Instagram: "When @selenagomez includes Texas Roadhouse in her top favorite places to eat." That kind of organic buzz is marketing gold, and Texas Roadhouse has been expanding aggressively, opening new restaurants across several states heading into 2026.
BJ's could use a similar boost. A Pizookie Trio option, three smaller versions that let diners sample different flavors, shows the chain is already trying to build more of its identity around the dessert. Sweeney's repeated, public enthusiasm hands them a gift they didn't have to pay for.
Celebrity food endorsements are not exactly hard news. But there is something worth noticing when a young actress with every luxury available to her keeps circling back to an $8.49 dessert at a chain restaurant her family took her to as a kid.
It is a reminder that the vast majority of Americans do not eat at places with prix fixe menus and sommelier pairings. They eat at BJ's, at Texas Roadhouse, at the places where a family of four can sit down, order without anxiety, and split a warm cookie at the end. Those restaurants, and the people who love them, are the backbone of the casual dining economy.
When Hollywood occasionally remembers that, it is worth a nod.