California Pizza Kitchen takes its show on the road

Nation's Restaurant News, Oct 12, 1987 by Richard Martin

California Pizza Kitchen takes its show on the road

Pizza profits are among the tastiest in the food-service industry, inspiring scores of gleeful operators to sell flour, water, tomato sauce, cheese, and toppings to an insatiable public.

But when entrepreneurs can lay claim to a seductive new brand of pizza, they have real reason to rejoice.

"Alice created California pizza; Wolfgang introduced it,' says a smiling Larry Flax, co-founder of the four-unit California Pizza Kitchen chain, referring to Alice Waters of Chez Panisse and Wolfgang Puck of Spago. "But we capitalized on it, and we own it.'

That's right. Attorneys Flax and Rick Rosenfield, the two former federal prosecutors and law partners who launched CPK here in May 1985, literally own the rights to the exotic designation "California pizza.'

They also function as the high-grossing chain's research chefs, concocting new pizza recipes--like the forthcoming teriyaki chicken version--to augment an eclectic repertoire that mixes and matches sundry foods from the Los Angeles melting pot.

If receipts from their first out-of-town branch are any indication, the two are cooking their way into the ranks of the major-league pizza moguls. The 200-seat CPK outlet in Atlanta's Lenox Square mall posted sales of $3 million in its first year ended in April.

The 80-seat prototype unit in Beverly Hills, which did nearly $1.5 million in first-year sales, is on course to top $2.2 million this year. CPK's Beverly Center branch in Los Angeles posted $2 million in sales its first year, while a new Topanga Plaza branch in the San Fernando Valley is expected to do $1.6 million.

More new branches will open soon--by December, in the Kahala Mall near Honolulu, and next May, in Newport Beach, Calif., next door to the El Torito Grill. A 20-unit joint venture agreement is pending for the Northeast, in addition to proposed expansion pacts with Japanese and French operators.

Like the first four restaurants, those California Pizza Kitchens will all feature quick-baking, wood-fired pizza ovens and a sleek, yellow-black-and-white tile-and-mirror decor. So will the 15 or so additional CPK units Flax and Rosenfield believe could eventually be supported by their home market of Los Angeles.

Originally inspired by the pizzas of Spago, CPK's founders want their full-service chain to become "the Baskin-Robbins of pizza.'

Thirty-one flavors or not, CPK offers such creations as moo shu pork calzones and pizzas variously topped with barbecued chicken, Andouille sausage and okra, peanut-ginger-flavored Thai chicken, Peking-style duck breast, or Szechwan shrimp with black mushrooms. A popular B.L.T. pizza features bacon and fresh tomatoes baked on a crust and then topped with chopped lettuce and a slathering of mayonnaise.

In addition to pizzas, CPK offers salads and house-made pastas and sausages that also feature creative, "gourmet' touches.

"We decided to bring our product to the people,' said Rosenfield, "because we couldn't get a table at Spago any better than anyone else.' After hiring Spago's pizza chef as their consultant, the entrepreneurial lawyers opened to immediate acclaim.

Rapidly affirmed were two fundamentals of CPK's formula. One, according to Flax and Rosenfield, is that a superhot, wood-fired oven ensures rapid service and superior quality, since it makes a crisp crust in only three minutes. The second precept is that a break from the tradition of tomato-sauce toppings opens the door to new creative realms and a new generation of pizza eaters.

"Even Shakey's is now experimenting with barbecued chicken pizza,' Flax notes, referring to CPK's initial flavor sensation.

Photo: California Pizza Kitchen co-founders Larry Flax, left, and Rick Rosenfield.