California Pizza Kitchen Opening in The Streets at Southpoint; Masonic Home for Children to Benefit From Pizza Sales

Business Wire, March 5, 2002

Business Editors

DURHAM, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 5, 2002

California Pizza Kitchen (NASDAQ:CPKI), home of the Original BBQ Chicken pizza and many other innovative hearth-baked pizzas, creative pastas, salads, soups and sandwiches, will open its first full-service restaurant in North Carolina on Tuesday, March 12 in Durham at The Streets at Southpoint.

To celebrate the opening, California Pizza Kitchen will donate 100% of pizza sales on Monday, March 18, to the Masonic Home for Children in Oxford, NC.

"The Masonic Home for Children is the oldest Masonic children's home in the country in its original location. Over the past 126 years, it has been dedicated to caring for about 8,000 needy and disadvantaged children of North Carolina," said David R. Grissom, administrator of Masonic Home for Children.

"We are excited about opening in the NC Triangle. The funds we donate through pizza sales March 18 will help the Masonic Home for Children in its current campaign to provide the highest quality care possible," said Fred Hipp, CPK president and CEO. "CPK has a history of raising funds for children's causes coast-to-coast," added Hipp.

Customers at the new NC Triangle CPK can expect the same friendly open-style kitchen, light woods, and colorful pizza box art on the walls -- all signatures of the California Pizza Kitchen contemporary decor. The restaurant is just under 5,000 square feet with a dining capacity of 146 seats inside and 32 on the patio.

California Pizza Kitchen, Inc., founded in 1985, is a leading casual dining chain in the premium pizza segment. The restaurant features hearth-baked pizzas, pastas, salads, soups and sandwiches. The chain operates 130 restaurants of which 101 are company-owned, and 29 operate under franchise or license agreements. The California Pizza Kitchen website is www.cpk.com.

The Streets at Southpoint, heralded as the third or fourth largest mall in the country, is an enclosed two-level regional shopping center with an outdoor cityscape called Main Street. It is a 200,000-square-foot outdoor entertainment area featuring several exclusive new restaurants including CPK, popular retailers and a movie theatre. The mall is located at 6910 Fayetteville Road off 1-40 in Durham.

Note: Photos available by request.