California Pizza for the masses; CPK offering Spago-inspired nouvelle pies

Nation's Restaurant News, June 24, 1985 by Richard Martin

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- Customers who suddenly find themselves hungry for a wood-fired-oven-baked "California pizza" a la Wolfgang Puck but realize they cannot just drop in unexpcted at celebrity-packed Spago now have another option.

With the aid of several Spago veterans, two Beverly Hills attorneys have opened California Pizza Kitchen (CPK), currently gearing up for a modest local expansion while it serves between 300 and 500 guests a day.

The two amateur chefs and former Federal prosecutors who founded the restaurant, Larry Flax and Rick Rosenfield, now project a $1.3 million first-year gross for their stylish 75-seat full-service pizzeria, which opened in March.

The 2,000-sq.-ft. restaurant cost about $500,000 to open; four more outlets envisioned for the next two years will vary in cost and in size.

Inspiration for the partners' wood-fired pizza" venture has come from the short but lucrative history of the nouvelle pizza, as prominent Calfornia chefs have interpeted it over the last few years.

Berkeley's Alice Waters first baked innovative versions of the old Neapolitan classic in the casual cafe above her renowned Chez Panisse restaurant.

And Wolfgang Puck, who savored similar pizzas on his days off as a young chef in the south of France, turned them into a gastronomic phenomenon in Los Angeles after Waters' hearth-baked creations inspired him anew.

Flax and Rosenfield also observed the growing popularity of those dishs at such acclaimed new southern California restaurants as the Parkway Grille in Pasadena and Bistango in Beverly Hills.

Wood-fire-baked pizzas with such exotic toppings as goat cheese, duck sausage and wild mushrooms are now fashion plates at a growing number of trendy restaurants on both coasts. But those customers exposed to the gourmet updatng of the standard pizza-parlor product have had limited opportunities for indulging themselves, Flax and Rosenfield feel.

While their guests at the prototype CPK storefront on south Beverly Drive munch on pizzas adorned variously with duck breast, grape leaves, rabbit sausage and shiitake mushrooms, Flax and Rosenfield are mulling over possible expansion sites in such upscale neighborhoods as Brentwood, Encino and Newport Beach. A deal on a second location, a freestanding spot in Studio City, is reportedly nearly closed.

"This concept is simply the best pizza ever known," Rosenfield asserted during one of his frequent working visits to the restaurant from his law office next door. He pointed out that CPK's superhot exhibition oven, imported from Italy, is stoked with white oak logs and cooks pizzas in about three minutes. A very crisp crust, a naturally smoky flavor and fast service are among the attributes ascribed to CPK's rapid-fire hearth.

At nearby Spago, Wolfgang Puck offers his benediction to the more accessible, more utilitarian CPK concept. "I think it's flattering," said Puck. "There's definitely room for an upscale Shakey's," he remarked, adding that he, too, would frequent such a place had he not opened Spago.

Looking at CPK's modern yellow-black-and-white color scheme played out in curved bands of tile and lots of mirror, Puck's comparison to Shakey's seems a bit far-fetched. Moreover, CPK's owners reject the idea of rapid expansion or franchising for at least a few years. (However, actress Jane Seymour, one of several limited partners in the first CPK outlet, reportedly wants to take the concept to London.)

Further distinguishing CPK is a menu that is altogether different from those in most of America's pizza parlors.

Salads (accounting for about 17% of sales) are priced from $4.50 to $9 and contain such foods as shaved Romano cheese, balsamic basil vinaigrette and duck breast.

Pizzas (about 40% of sales) include three cheeseless versions ($6.75-$7.50) with such toppings as grilled Japanese eggplant, radicchio, sun-dried tomatoes, asparagus with bordelaise butter and Italan pancetta bacon.

A dozen plate-sized pizzas, looking much like those served at Spago, are topped variously with smoked Gouda, whole roasted garlic, barbecued chicken, breast of duck with hoisin sauce, Gorgonzola cheese with pine nuts and radicchio and spicy marinated shrimp with vegetables and fresh mint. Prices range from $5.50 to $9.25.

Two of the newest pizza creations devised by consultant Ed La Dou, a former pizza cook at Spago, demonstrate California Pizza Kitchen's defiance of convention.