Eater Editors Give Hot Takes on California Pizza Kitchen During Its 40th Anniversary | Eater LA

"Opened in 1985 by Rick Rosenfield and Larry Flax, the original Beverly Hills location on Beverly Drive — just blocks from Rodeo Drive and the Golden Triangle — is the first restaurant of the enduring chain and celebrated its 40th birthday on March 27, 2025. Inside, tile in the restaurant's signature shade of yellow wraps around the pizza oven, which "roars with flames as pies slide in and out, crusts puffing up from the heat," a hand-written chalkboard advertises a 40th birthday special of "$9 take-home pizzas," and families with young children sit flanked on one side of the room. The brand became a suburban mall anchor known for Barbecue Chicken pizzas, crispy avocado egg rolls, and grape-dotted Waldorf salads, and now has locations across the U.S. and in countries including South Korea, Japan, Dubai, and Mexico. During the week of March 22, 2025 the company posted a teasing Instagram video suggesting a rebrand to be a little more Charli XCX — the start of a "Brat" spring — replacing the approachable black palm-tree-on-yellow-triangle with a three-dimensional metal-textured tree resembling an NFT and a new tagline of "Fresh to Death"; reactions ranged from brands like Ritz Crackers writing "rizz detected" to widespread confusion. Five Eater editors visited the original Beverly Hills location on March 25, 2025 to eat and discuss the chain's past and future. Kat Thompson: "A friend with whom I grew up had a parent who worked in research and development at the restaurant. When we were broke high schoolers, we would get meals here, and, honestly, she helped to expand my palate when I was 14 because we were — I was — trying the entire menu. I always tell her that I feel like I got into my food career because I was doing suburban food tasting with her at the restaurant — she had some sort of membership card, so she would always get free meals. I really want to write a story about how impactful the restaurant was for my early career development because it reminds me of that woman who did Olive Garden food reviews in her small town, and everyone made fun of her. But then, Anthony Bourdain was like, this is kind of cool because she’s reviewing what’s in her town and immediately available to her. Not to say that only the restaurant was available to me, but also when you grow up in like the suburbs, or in the Valley… I was just hanging out at the Arcadia mall, the only place I wanted to be." Matthew Kang observed that trips there as children felt like adventures and argued, "You can give me the best barbecue chicken in the world and the worst burnt ends in the world and the burnt ends will still be better." Rebecca Roland recalled, "The Waldorf Chicken Salad used to be one of the most requested items for my table when I grew up in the Valley. There’s apples and grapes — it’s fresh and it’s bright, and you get those crunchy celery pieces and the sweet candied walnuts." Nicole Adlman said, "It is generously dressed. That’s the vibe here, and at most chain restaurants— borderline maximalist in terms of the size of the food that comes to the table, the amount of dressing put on the salad. It’s very generous." Dishes on the anniversary menu drew split but fond reactions: "It’s kind of incredible how well the cauliflower crust bends. And there’s no, like, mealiness to it at all," someone said of the gluten-free crust; Rebecca called the Burnt Ends Barbecue Pizza superior to the Barbecue Chicken Pizza: "I think the burnt ends pizza tastes better than the Barbecue Chicken Pizza. It’s just better." The Thai Chicken Pizza prompted skepticism and curiosity: "I am not one to order anything Thai at a giant chain restaurant. Yeah, that was not me. My mom, who is Thai, would be like, 'What the fuck are you doing?'" but also, "The Thai Chicken Pizza reminds me of a Vietnamese wrap, like a spring roll with the peanut dipping sauce... Do I think this is inherently Thai? No, but there are elements of it that, you could argue, feel Southeast Asian." Commentators noted the chain's playful cross-cultural experiments — "not exactly chaos cooking... but... playful flavor experimentation in a way that feels earnest, not vulturous" — and its role in making certain flavors accessible to diners with limited exposure. Across the conversation ran a throughline of nostalgia and Los Angeles identity: editors described the aesthetic as a time-capsule '80s/'90s (dim mood lighting for some, Mall Gourmet for others), praised the longevity and the lifers on staff, and debated whether the chain's restraint from following every trend ("They haven’t done the hot honey pepperoni thing; they haven’t done the Quarter Sheets-style square pizza") is reassuring. As one editor put it, "There’s something to say about longevity of the people who work here... there are [restaurant] lifers." Several also noted that, while the food is often "basic" or comfort-oriented, it occupies a distinct place in American dining culture: accessible, nostalgically formative, and durable enough to persist through changing food trends." - Eater Staff