{"id":409132,"date":"2026-07-23T06:43:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T06:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/409132\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T06:43:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T06:43:12","slug":"california-pizza-kitchen-co-founder-says-he-wouldnt-launch-chain-in-state-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/409132\/","title":{"rendered":"California Pizza Kitchen co-founder says he wouldn’t launch chain in state today"},"content":{"rendered":"

California has become so hostile to business that even the man who built California Pizza Kitchen <\/a>says he wouldn\u2019t start the iconic chain there today.<\/p>\n

Rick Rosenfield, who co-founded the restaurant brand with Larry Flax in Beverly Hills <\/a>in 1985, said Florida, not the Golden State, would be his first choice if he were launching the company now.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it were me today, I would open in Florida before I would open it in California,\u201d Rosenfield told<\/a> <\/a>Fox News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornia is less business-friendly today, and they make it apparent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rick Rosenfield, co-founder of California Pizza Kitchen. CA Post<\/p>\n

Exterior of California Pizza Kitchen in Beverly Hills. CA Post<\/p>\n

The chain, famous for its California-style pizzas<\/a> and its signature barbecue chicken pie, has grown to 185 locations, many of them still in California.<\/p>\n

But Rosenfield says the state that once helped define the brand has become a far tougher place to do business.<\/p>\n

He said California was \u201cthe greatest place to do business\u201d a decade ago, but believes conditions deteriorated after the COVID-19 pandemic, pointing to labor shortages, soaring costs and the state\u2019s fast-food minimum wage<\/a> law.<\/p>\n

California Pizza Kitchen was among the restaurant chains battered by the pandemic as customers stayed home, ultimately filing for bankruptcy protection in 2020.<\/p>\n

Rick Rosenfield, co-founder of CPK.<\/p>\n

Rosenfield himself relocated to Florida in 2024, according to the Los Angeles Times, and said the difference between the two states has been impossible to ignore.<\/p>\n

\u201cFlorida is quite friendly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s less bureaucracy in Florida, and there\u2019s more bureaucracy in California, and that\u2019s basically my experience,\u201d he told the outlet.<\/p>\n

His criticism echoes a broader corporate flight from California that has reshaped the state\u2019s business landscape.<\/p>\n

McKesson Corporation and Charles Schwab moved<\/a> their longtime San Francisco headquarters to Texas in 2019.<\/p>\n

Oracle and Hewlett Packard Enterprise followed in 2020, while Tesla shifted its headquarters <\/a>in 2021.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Chevron<\/a>, SpaceX<\/a> and X also relocated their headquarters to Texas, with Elon Musk <\/a>and the 145-year-old energy giant citing regulatory and political frustrations.<\/p>\n

SpaceX logo being displayed on a smartphone in front of a pile of $100 bills. Christopher Sadowski for NY Post<\/p>\n

Even so, Rosenfield said California\u2019s image was once one of the company\u2019s greatest assets, and a key reason the restaurant stood out from the competition.<\/p>\n

When he and Flax were weighing names for the new concept, advisers argued that a traditional Italian name would blend in.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said, well, \u2018With those other names, if you open in Providence, it would just be another Italian restaurant,\u2019\u201d Rosenfield told The California Post. \u201cBut if you open a California Pizza Kitchen in Providence, we want to go see what you fruits and nuts are up to.\u201d<\/p>\n

The California Pizza Kitchen sign above the restaurant\u2019s entrance. \u00a9AFM\/Finalpixx.com\/Newscom<\/p>\n

California Pizza Kitchen co-CEO Rick Rosenfield gets first-hand experience in the kitchen of his restaurant chain. California Pizza Kitchen \/ TLC<\/p>\n

The argument won them over.<\/p>\n

\u201cI absolutely believe that the California name resonated not only in California, but around the world,\u201d Rosenfield told The Post. \u201cIt has a connotation of being healthy and innovative and clean and energetic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rosenfield\u2019s book, The California Pizza Kitchen Story: How Two Federal Prosecutors Changed the Way America Eats Pizza, was released July 21.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California has become so hostile to business that even the man who built California Pizza Kitchen says he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,163992,457,4182,6927,3586],"class_list":["post-409132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-fox-business-network","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-metro","tag-pizza","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}