California Pizza Kitchen co-founder opens up about famous chain's wild rise, bankruptcy and comeback

California Pizza Kitchen co-founder Rick Rosenfield told Fox News Digital how two former prosecutors built a pizza empire and how he believes the iconic chain is moving towards a 'new glory.' On a quintessential Beverly Hills street in 1985, a restaurant that would help transform the pizza industry opened its doors. After years of practicing law as federal prosecutors and criminal defense attorneys, co-founders Rick Rosenfield and Larry Flax chose to leave the courtroom behind to pursue their dream of becoming restaurateurs.

"We didn't want to open just a restaurant. We decided to be bold. We said we want to open a national and international chain of restaurants," Rosenfield told Fox News Digital. With its Original BBQ Chicken Pizza and polished approach to casual dining, California Pizza Kitchen helped popularize California-style pizza among diners across U.S. and eventually around the world. The chain became a household name while helping bring a distinctive, California-inspired approach to pizzas, pastas, salads and desserts.

California Pizza Kitchen has more than 120 restaurants in 10 countries. But at one point, CPK existed only in a single storefront on South Beverly Drive. Rosenfield recalled the restaurant's early days in Beverly Hills as "hectic," with actress Shirley MacLaine becoming its first customer on opening day.

"Even before we opened, we knew we had a blockbuster on our hand. We created barbecue chicken pizza. And in the early days of CPK, it was complete craziness. Everybody was coming for barbecue chicken pizza," said Rosenfield. His book, "The California Pizza Kitchen Story: How Two Federal Prosecutors Changed the Way America Eats Pizza," was released July 21.

Rosenfield and Flax employed a real estate strategy that helped expand CPK's reach, opening restaurants in and around shopping malls. "CPK also had a hand in changing the way America eats because we were pioneers in going into upscale shopping centers around America at a time when... there was all fast food," Rosenfield said. "We brought this polished, casual dining to the best malls in America."

After Rosenfield and Flax grew CPK to more than 200 locations worldwide, the pizza giant was acquired for $470 million by private equity firm Golden Gate Capital in 2011. At the time of the acquisition, the San Francisco-based firm described itself as "one of the most active acquirers of leading brands in the restaurant and retail sector."

Nine years after Golden Gate Capital acquired the chain, CPK filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on July 30, 2020, after the COVID-19 pandemic compounded its existing financial troubles. Rosenfield, however, told Fox News Digital he believes CPK's troubles began before the bankruptcy filing, arguing that Golden Gate Capital damaged the culture he and Flax had spent decades building.

"As founder, it's hard to sit back because I had no role in it whatsoever. So, we're armchair quarterbacks looking from the outside," he said. "I believe that they damaged the culture from day one. They wanted to remake it in an image different than we had remade it in. And in the meantime, it wasn't successful," the co-founder cont...