LYCOS RETRIEVER 
California Pizza Kitchen
built 491 days ago
California Pizza Kitchen was opening restaurants in upscale office buildings and pricey malls and as freestanding units in affluent areas. The company's restaurants were primarily located throughout the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area, but new units were opened on a monthly basis in major cities across the country, including Chicago and Atlanta. Except for two franchises in Las Vegas, and a limited partnership in Chicago, all of the restaurant units were owned by Flax and Rosenfield. Delighted by the chain's success, PepsiCo management was especially intrigued by the part played by the waitstaff in California Pizza Kitchen's achievement. When PepsiCo officials visited a number of California Pizza Kitchen units located in various areas of the country, they discovered an inordinately friendly and helpful staff of waiters and waitresses at each restaurant. Impressed by the process of selection, training, and retainment of employees, PepsiCo was determined to learn how to apply these techniques to its own restaurant operations.
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California Pizza Kitchen, Inc., founded in 1985, is a leading casual dining chain. Of the chain's 222 restaurants, 189 are company-owned and 33 operate under franchise or license agreements. There are 26 CPK ASAP locations, 10 of which are company-owned and 16 are franchised. Also included in the company's portfolio of concepts is LA Food Show Grill & Bar, which currently has one location in Manhattan Beach, California. The company's full-service restaurants feature an imaginative line of hearth-baked pizzas, including the original BBQ Chicken Pizza, and a broad selection of distinctive pastas, salads, soups, appetizers and sandwiches. The company ... has a licensing arrangement with Kraft Pizza Company, which manufactures and distributes a line of California Pizza Kitchen premium frozen pizzas.
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After the IPO, California Pizza Kitchen embarked on an aggressive growth strategy with Hipp at the helm. During 2003, 22 restaurants were opened. Some of the company's new locations... failed to meet profit expectations. As a result, the firm took cost-cutting measures that included shuttering its quality assurance department, stopping new menu rollouts, and raising the criteria for performance bonuses for managers. The company's founders, Flax and Rosenfield, were disenchanted with California Pizza Kitchen's direction and immediately set plans in motion to regain control of the company. Sure enough, Hipp left his post in 2003, leaving Flax and Rosenfield positioned to restructure California Pizza Kitchen.
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California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) puts a West Coast twist on an old favorite. The company operates a chain of more than 200 casual-dining restaurants in 30 states and five other countries offering pizzas with a variety of unique topping combinations, including duck, barbecued chicken, and grilled shrimp. It ... serves Neapolitan pizzas from Italy as well as American-style pies. CPK rounds out its menu with pastas, soups, salads, and desserts. The company owns about 180 of its locations, while the rest are franchised. In addition to its full-service establishments, CPK has about two dozen quick-service kiosk locations.
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CPK provides a range of creative California dishes, from signature California-style, hearth-baked pizzas to creative salads, pastas, soups and sandwiches. With items ranging from the Original BBQ Chicken Pizza to Kung Pao Spaghetti and the Waldorf Chicken Salad or Wok-seared Lettuce Wraps, CPK is sure to have something for everyone. Full bar ... available.
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Most of the food serviced here tastes defrosted; all pizza sauce, and the large majority of salad and pasta sauces. This is at best a fast dinning food experiance. If you like defrosted food in a loud busy enviourment, this is the place for you. For those that want good pizza in Santa Barbara look for your local pizzarias not this corporate frozen blaa.
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California Pizza Kitchen