California Pizza Kitchen

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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.

[edit] Description

The Ocean Terminal, Hong Kong location at Christmastime

A California Club pizza from CPK

A new California Pizza Kitchen in Stamford, Connecticut

CPK is essentially a mass-market offshoot of Wolfgang Puck's Spago restaurant in Beverly Hills, and the Chez Panisse cafe in Berkeley, California. In 1985 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 230 locations across 31 states and six countries, including 20 California Pizza Kitchen ASAP kiosks designed to serve passengers at airports and shopping malls.^[1] The company has also licensed their name to Kraft Foods to distribute a line of premium frozen pizzas.^[1]