California Pizza Kitchen co-founder Rick Rosenfield advised Fox Information Digital how two former prosecutors constructed a pizza empire and the way he believes the enduring chain is transferring in the direction of a ‘new glory.’
On a quintessential Beverly Hills road in 1985, a restaurant that might assist remodel the pizza trade opened its doorways.
After years of training regulation as federal prosecutors and prison protection attorneys, co-founders Rick Rosenfield and Larry Flax selected to depart the courtroom behind to pursue their dream of changing into restaurateurs.
“We did not wish to open only a restaurant. We determined to be daring. We stated we wish to open a nationwide and worldwide chain of eating places,” Rosenfield advised Fox Information Digital.
With its Unique BBQ Hen Pizza and polished method to informal eating, California Pizza Kitchen helped popularize California-style pizza amongst diners throughout the U.S. and ultimately all over the world. The chain grew to become a family title whereas serving to carry a particular, California-inspired method to pizzas, pastas, salads and desserts.
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Rick Rosenfield (Left) and Larry Flax (Proper) co-founded California Pizza Kitchen after years of training regulation. (Mark Boster/Los Angeles Instances by way of Getty Photos / Getty Photos)
California Pizza Kitchen has greater than 120 eating places in 10 international locations. However at one level, CPK existed solely in a single storefront on South Beverly Drive.
Rosenfield recalled the restaurant’s early days in Beverly Hills as “hectic,” with actress Shirley MacLaine changing into its first buyer on opening day.
“Even earlier than we opened, we knew we had a blockbuster on our hand. We created barbecue rooster pizza. And within the early days of CPK, it was full craziness. Everyone was coming for barbecue rooster pizza,” stated Rosenfield. His e-book, “The California Pizza Kitchen Story: How Two Federal Prosecutors Modified the Approach America Eats Pizza,” was launched July 21.
Rosenfield and Flax employed an actual property technique that helped develop CPK’s attain, opening eating places in and round buying malls.
“CPK additionally had a hand in altering the way in which America eats as a result of we had been pioneers in going into upscale buying facilities round America at a time when… there was all quick meals,” Rosenfield stated. “We introduced this polished, informal eating to the most effective malls in America.”
California Pizza Kitchen situated on the Simi Valley City Heart April 12, 2010. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Instances by way of Getty Photos / Getty Photos)
After Rosenfield and Flax grew CPK to greater than 200 places worldwide, the pizza big was acquired for $470 million by personal fairness agency Golden Gate Capital in 2011.
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On the time of the acquisition, the San Francisco-based agency described itself as “some of the energetic acquirers of main manufacturers within the restaurant and retail sector.”
9 years after Golden Gate Capital acquired the chain, CPK filed for Chapter 11 chapter safety on July 30, 2020, after the COVID-19 pandemic compounded its present monetary troubles.
Rosenfield, nonetheless, advised Fox Information Digital he believes CPK’s troubles started earlier than the chapter submitting, arguing that Golden Gate Capital broken the tradition he and Flax had spent many years constructing.
“As founder, it is arduous to take a seat again as a result of I had no function in it in any way. So, we’re armchair quarterbacks trying from the surface,” he stated.
A California Pizza Kitchen location in Los Angeles on June 28, 2005. (Frazer Harrison/Getty Photos for Los Angeles Journal / Getty Photos)
“I consider that they broken the tradition from day one. They needed to remake it in a picture totally different than we had remade it in. And within the meantime, it wasn’t profitable,” the co-founder continued. “And it continued to say no on that foundation, sadly. As I stated, whereas we sat and watched it, after which it was in the end pushed into chapter 11.”
Golden Gate Capital declined Fox Information Digital’s request for remark.
California Pizza Kitchen emerged from chapter in November 2020, and Rosenfield, who stated he nonetheless dines at CPK each a number of weeks, is optimistic in regards to the chain’s future beneath new possession that he believes is “dedicated” to restoring the model’s success.
The acquisition of California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) by New York-based Consortium Model Companions was introduced in December 2025 for a deal valued just below $300 million. Rosenfield stated he’s “thrilled” with the route the restaurant is headed in beneath the brand new possession.
“I consider they wish to carry the model, not solely to its former glory, however to new glory,” stated Rosenfield. “I’ve confidence on this workforce. And for the primary time in all these years, my associate, Larry Flax, and I are very enthusiastic about the place it may go.”
Rosenfield and Flax on the Redondo Seaside/South Bay Galleria California Pizza Kitchen on Jan. 15, 2008. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Instances by way of Getty Photos / Getty Photos)
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Rosenfield mirrored on the legacy he and Flax constructed from a small, leased house in Beverly Hills, telling Fox Information Digital that the 41-year-old restaurant chain “achieved” precisely what they envisioned from the start.
“I really like that everyone has a CPK story. That is what drove me to do the e-book,” the co-founder stated. “It is achieved what we needed. Grandparents, mother and father, children all have a spot that they will all go to and conform to go to.”
“Whereas I stated that I consider that they did harm to the tradition within the years previous, I believe the meals has been extremely constant. And I’ve at all times been extraordinarily, I am extraordinarily happy with the model,” Rosenfield stated.
