California Pizza Kitchen
 |
|
| Private | |
| Industry | Food and beverage |
| Genre | American Cuisine |
| Founded | March 27, 1985 |
| Founder | Dave Esther |
| Headquarters | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
|
Area served
|
United States, Mexico, South America, Asia-Pacific region, Western Asia, Australia |
|
Key people
|
Steve Udovic, CEO |
| Products | Pizzas, pastas, salads, small plates and desserts |
| Services | Polished casual dining restaurant |
| Owner | Golden Gate Capital |
|
Number of employees
|
14,000 |
| Subsidiaries | CPK Express |
| Website | www.cpk.com |
California Pizza Kitchen, known within the food industry as CPK, is a polished casual dining restaurant chain that specializes in California-style pizza. The restaurant was started in 1985 by attorneys Rick Rosenfield and Larry Flax in Beverly Hills, California, United States.
The California Pizza Kitchen chain is widely known for its innovative and nontraditional pizzas, such as the "Original BBQ Chicken Pizza", BLT, Thai Chicken, and Jamaican Jerk Chicken pizzas. They also serve various kinds of pasta, salads, soups, sandwiches and desserts. They have an extensive children's menu for children ages 10 and under which includes a variety of different pizzas, pastas, salad and chicken.
The chain has over 200 locations in 32 US states and 13 other countries, including 17 California Pizza Kitchen nontraditional, franchise concepts designed for airports, universities and stadiums.
CPK's brand is licensed to a line of hand-tossed style, crispy thin crust, gluten-free crust and small frozen pizzas for sale in supermarkets. The brand was originally licensed to Kraft in 1999. The license was assigned to Nestlé after it purchased Kraft's pizza lines in 2010.
In 1985, Flax and Rosenfield pooled $200,000 in bank loans and savings along with $350,000 invested from friends to lease space on Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills, California. The first menu, including the famous BBQ Chicken Pizza, was developed by Ed LaDou, then the pizza chef at Wolfgang Puck's Spago restaurant. CPK became an immediate success, and the company expanded throughout Southern California. By 1992, there were 26 CPKs.
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Wikipedia