Beyond the BBQ Chicken Pizza: The values that built California Pizza Kitchen

In the second installment of this two-part series, California Pizza Kitchen co-founder Rick Rosenfield recounts the company's culture that made it a success and how ownership transitions have led to both disappointment and optimism as the company looks to begin again.

When Rick Rosenfield and Larry Flax set out to build California Pizza Kitchen, they had an ambitious vision: to create a new category of American pizza. But as Rosenfield recalls, the dream was bigger than the evidence they had to support it.

"For the bank, I said we were going to create the third most important pizza style in the US, along with New York and Chicago. And I had no reasonable way to believe it. It was just our vision and our dream. But then we got into it and we realized immediately that if we were going to pull this off, it was all going to be about people."

That realization would become central to the culture they built. For Rosenfield, creating a successful restaurant company wasn't simply about developing a distinctive menu or growing a brand. It was about the people who brought the vision to life, from the employees welcoming guests to the teams working behind the scenes. How they treated one another mattered just as much as what they served.

But as California Pizza Kitchen grew, Rosenfield and Flax discovered that bringing their vision to life required more than a distinctive menu or an ambitious expansion plan. It required people who cared about the business and the experience they were creating.

"As an owner, nobody is ever going to care as much as you do. But that doesn't mean you can't get people to care," Rosenfield said.

To cultivate that commitment, they developed an extensive employee training program that required team members to demonstrate their knowledge of every menu item. The process helped identify people willing to invest the time and effort necessary to deliver the experience the founders envisioned.

Pizza might have brought guests through the door, but hospitality was what would bring them back.

The company's philosophy later evolved into a formal cultural framework known as R.O.C.K.: Respect, Opportunity, Communication and Kindness. Of those four principles, Rosenfield believes kindness was the most important.

"We promoted kind people," he said. "In order to succeed at CPK, you had to be kind."

The company recognized employees through its Rockstar Awards and promoted people who demonstrated its values. Rosenfield believes that approach helped create an environment where employees wanted to work and where guests wanted to return.

For Rosenfield, building a strong culture wasn't a marketing initiative or an employee handbook. It was reflected in everyday decisions, particularly those that required leaders to put their principles ahead of short-term convenience. And he believes that philosophy was central to CPK's growth.

CPK was sold to private investors in 2011, and Rosenfield found himself at the start of another new journey.

He invested in Bottlefish, a seafood-focused restaurant located in Brentwood, California. The concept initially struggled, Rosenfield said, but eventually found success. And once again, Esther, his wife, played a hands-on role by welcoming guests as the restaurant's hostess.

And that's when COVID struck another blow. One that meant Bottlefish would have to close for good. For Rosenfield, the experience was painful, but it reinforced a lesson he believes every entrepreneur must learn: success is never guaranteed, and "failure is an option," he said.

"I never prayed for good luck," he said. "I prayed for the absence of bad luck."

Now living in Palm Beach, Florida, Rosenfield has come to believe that a restaurant's greatest competitive advantage isn't simply its food, its locations or its ability to expand. It's the people who bring the business to life.

He still hears from former CPK employees, many of whom describe their time there as one of the most meaningful experiences of their careers.

For Rosenfield, those memories offer evidence that the culture he and Flax built mattered beyond the company's commercial success. The impact wasn't measured only in sales or restaurant counts, but also in the lives of the people who helped make the business flourish.

Esther was central to that journey. She stood beside him when they risked their home and financial future, welcomed the first guests at CPK, and helped him navigate the uncertainty and sacrifices of entrepreneurship. Years later, she returned to the hostess stand at Bottlefish, supporting another venture with its own risks and rewards.

Her place in Rosenfield's journey is captured in the dedication of his book:

"For Esther — who had the faith to mortgage our home, the grace to welcome our first guests, and the love to carry us through it all."

It's a tribute to their marriage and to the shared commitment and belief that sustained them through decades of entrepreneurship. And perhaps that is the most revealing part of Rosenfield's story.

California Pizza Kitchen may have been built around an innovative approach to pizza, but to Rosenfield, its success speaks more about the people who stood beside him as an entrepreneur, the employees who believed in a shared vision and the values that guided a business when circumstances became difficult.

And while the BBQ Chicken Pizza helped put CPK on the map, kindness, Rosenfield believes, is what allowed it to withstand the test of time.

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