California Pizza Kitchen co-founder reveals story behind restaurant’s name

California Pizza Kitchen, with their nearly 50 locations across the Golden State and 200 world-wide, actually owe their name to Rhode Island. Rick Rosenfield and Larry Flax, who launched the first CPK in Beverly Hills in 1985, were considering more typical Italian restaurant-sounding names when they had dinner with a couple from Providence. California Pizza Kitchen co-founders Larry Flax and Rick Rosenfield. Courtesy of Amplify Publishing The original CPK opened in 1985 in Beverly Hills. “They said, well, ‘With those other names, if you open in Providence, it would just be another Italian restaurant,’” Rosenfield recalled. “But if you open a California Pizza Kitchen in Providence, we want to go see what you fruits and nuts are up to.” And that was all the convincing they needed. “I absolut