| California Pizza Kitchen | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Type | Public |
| Founded | 1985 |
| Headquarters | Los Angeles, California, United States |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Key people | Richard ("Rick") L. Rosenfeld and Larry S. Flax, co-founders and Co-CEOs; Susan M. Collyns, CFO and Secretary |
| Industry | Food and beverage |
| Products | Pizza |
| Services | Casual fine dining restaurant |
| Revenue | $555 million (2006)[1] |
| Net income | $21 million (2006)[1] |
| Employees | 13,900 (2006)[1] |
California Pizza Kitchen (NASDAQ: CPKI, known within the food industry as CPK) is a 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, USA.
Description
CPK is essentially a mass-market offshoot of Wolfgang Puck's Spago restaurant in Beverly Hills, and the Chez Panisse cafe in Berkeley, California. The restaurant hired Spago's founding pizza chef, Ed LaDou, to design its menu, and used a similar concept involving an open kitchen centered around a wood-burning pizza oven. It is credited with spreading this once-exclusive California gourmet trend throughout the United States and, later, the world. The chain is widely known for its innovative non traditional pizzas, such as the "Original BBQ Chicken Pizza", BLT, Thai Chicken, and Jamaican Jerk Chicken pizzas. They also serve various kinds of pasta, salads, and desserts. The chain has over 210 locations across 30 states and six countries, including 20 California Pizza Kitchen ASAP kiosks designed to serve passengers at airports.[1] The company has also licensed their name to Kraft Foods to distribute a line of premium frozen pizzas.[1]
External links
- California Pizza Kitchen Official website
- Robert Lauriston. "Pizza Smackdown:SoCal chain goes head to head with hometown favorite", San Francisco Weekly, September 26, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-10-02.
