11 things you didn't know about California Pizza Kitchen (2024)

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The founders left a successful law practice to open the first California Pizza Kitchen.

California Pizza Kitchen was founded in Beverly Hills, California, in 1985 by two lawyers, Larry Flax and Rick Rosenfield. Flax and Rosenfield left a successful law practice to open the restaurant that would eventually launch the CPK chain.

"We had no idea what we were doing but signed a lease in Beverly Hills. It cost about half a million to open. We took out second mortgages on our houses and borrowed a quarter-million from the bank. When we needed more money, we put together a limited partnership. We called 23 friends, and 22 said yes, raising $300,000," Rosenfield told Fortune.

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CPK popularized California-style pizza.

We have innovative California chefs like Alice Waters and Ed LaDou to thank for elevating pizza to the next level with creative, gourmet toppings. In fact, CPK's founders tapped LaDou — who worked at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant Spago — to develop their menu, including the fabled barbecue chicken pizza.

According to his 2008 Los Angeles Times obituary, LaDou once likened making California-style pizza to "being an artist who'd worked with 10 colors all of his life and then got to use 300."

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The company used to be owned by Pepsico.

Pepsico bought a 67% stake of CPK in 1992. Then, five years later, the private equity firm Bruckmann, Rosser, Sherrill & Co purchased the food and beverage company's shares.

It was once publicly traded on the stock market.

The company was traded on the NASDAQ National Market from 2000 to 2011 when the private equity firm Golden Gate Capital acquired it for $470 million.

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The chain offers 20 flavors of pizza.

You can choose from 20 flavors, such as the California club pizza, which is topped with ingredients like bacon, grilled chicken, mozzarella, and avocado, and the Mexican-influenced carne asada pie.

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CPK offers five certified-gluten-free pizza varieties on its menu.

If you or someone in your party has a gluten allergy or intolerance, CPK can make five of its pizzas with agluten-free crust. Select flavors have been certified safe by the Gluten Intolerance Group, with options ranging from crowd-pleasers like BBQ chicken and mushroom pepperoni sausage to simpler fare such as cheese and Margherita.

CPK also has a cauliflower crust made using gluten-free ingredients, based on information from its supplier. However, due to CPK's current kitchen space, only the pizzas listed on CPK's separate Gluten-Free Pizza menu can be prepared using Gluten Intolerance Group's certified gluten-free procedures.

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There's more than just pizza on the menu.

If you've never dined at CPK, you might be unaware that the chain boasts an extensive menu encompassing far more than pizza. You can also order a range of soups, salads, and pastas, not to mention classic entrees like cedar plank salmon and fire-grilled ribeye steak. Additionally, the chain serves power bowls, which are heavy on protein, veggies, and grains.

Similar to the generous helpings at The Cheesecake Factory, CPK's portions are conducive to sharing. As Kimberly Konen, a former CPK server, explained in an interview with Money, splitting menu items is a great way to try new dishes.

"A half-salad is still big enough to split with another person, if you are ordering an entree as well," Konen said. "I love sharing to be able to try different things on the menu."

CPK has some famous fans.

In 2015, Viola Davis tweeted about celebrating her first Emmy nomination at CPK. Additionally, MTV News correspondent Josh Horowitz took to Twitter to document CPK celeb sightings, writing in June 2018 that, on different occasions, he spotted Harry Styles and Lady Gaga at one of the restaurant's LA outposts.

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You can buy frozen CPK pizzas at your local grocery store.

You don't have to visit a brick-and-mortar CPK restaurant to get your BBQ chicken pizza fix. The company sells a range of frozen pies, which are manufactured by Nestlé.

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There are more than 270 locations in the US and overseas.

There are CPK locations in 30 states across the US and in 11 countries and territories overseas, from Australia to the United Arab Emirates.

Some international locations serve items you can't get at US restaurants. For instance, at the chain's outpost in Kawasaki, Japan, you can order miso shrimp and kalbi steak salad. At the CPK in Perth, Australia, there's a whole breakfast menu.

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In honor of the company's 30th anniversary, CPK remodeled some of its restaurants.

To celebrate the big 3-0, CPK gave some of its restaurants a modern makeover. Updates span from hip, sustainable decor to new menu items and an extended drink list.

"We wanted to make [CPK] relevant again, especially to our core guests — millennials and sophisticated foodies — by bringing back that creative California mindset," the company's former CEO, G.J. Hart, told Restaurant Business in 2015.

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