California Pizza Kitchen

Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck has been credited for popularizing the concept of “California pizza” at Spago in the early 1980s, but the innovator behind the now 40-year-old trend – Ed LaDou – reached new heights when he was hired to develop pizzas for California Pizza Kitchen in 1985. Using thin, lightly seasoned flatbread as a canvas to spotlight global cuisines and American fare, CPK introduced guests to what may well have been the country’s first-ever Tandoori chicken and Peking duck pizzas, as well as shrimp scampi, Thai chicken, Mexican carne asada, and the now-classic BBQ Chicken. Many were genuinely exciting to see on 1990’s menus, and legitimately delicious despite initial skepticism; that said, relatively few are still available.

CPK has changed a lot over the years. Originally based in Beverly Hills, the chain expanded rapidly throughout the United States during the 1990s and 2000s, reaching somewhere around 200 locations, and eventually relocating its headquarters to Costa Mesa in Orange County. Growth and expansion were stifled by management issues, including major changes in ownership and a bankruptcy, as well as a profoundly regrettable attempt – years ago – to diversify and stabilize the menu, sidelining novel pizzas in favor of forgettable appetizers, salads, and entrees. Once attentive service collapsed during the pandemic, even staple pizzas (including the once-spectacular shrimp scampi) disappeared, and locations continued to close, trends that persisted throughout 2024.