We probably don't need to remind anybody that the recession has completely changed restaurant development, but we're going to, anyway. "There aren't the new retail projects to facilitate growth," Jerry Deitchle, CEO of BJ's Restaurants, said this morning at the Cowen and Company Consumer Conference. In the old days, he said, retail developers would lay down their project plan in front of companies like BJ's, and then BJ's could pick and choose the developments in which it wanted space. Not anymore. "We have to focus on available space." Deitchle said that it's important these days to have relationships with landlords compete for that existing space. Just another reason to be nice to your landlord.