Podcast Interview:

Episode Summary

Rick Rosenfield, the co-founder and former co-CEO of California Pizza Kitchen, was a federal prosecutor and then a defense attorney in Los Angeles before he and his law partner, Larry Flax, turned a stray observation into California Pizza Kitchen. After years of talking about leaving law to start a business, the two finally decided to act following a long trial in San Francisco. At a Los Angeles restaurant, they noticed customers ordering pasta seemed to get a slice of pizza on the side, and driving back to their Beverly Hills law office, they began combining the two ideas into a California-style pizza concept. They decided to make it look like Chin Chin on Sunset Boulevard, the newly successful restaurant owned by their longtime friend Bob Mandler, who had once shared a law office with them, but in an Italian version. By the end of that afternoon they had a concept, though still no name and no menu. Their first big move was signing a lease with personal guarantees, and they borrowed a quarter of a million dollars on their law practice. Rick’s business plan staked out a third American pizza tradition alongside New York and Chicago, before barbecue chicken pizza, the dish that would define the brand, even existed.

Twenty-three phone calls to friends in a single afternoon produced twenty-two yes answers, from people who, Rick says, believed in them despite their lack of restaurant experience. Rick credits that to people trusting him and Larry as honest, committed people, and the kindness at the heart of their early culture later became the K in ROCK: respect, opportunity, communication, and kindness.

Their first big lesson, Rick says, came within the restaurant’s first year, when Rick and Larry fired their original chef, a Spago veteran they clashed with from the start, after he wrongly accused a server and made her cry. The three of them, Rick, Larry, and Rick’s wife Esther, sat on the floor of their law office afterward and cried, terrified, Rick says, but sure they had done the right thing. Gary Beauregard, a line cook, stepped into the gap and spent more than a decade building CPK’s menu alongside them.

Rick and Larry were partners at CPK for what Rick describes as twenty-five years and never once said “I told you so” to each other, a discipline Rick credits to neither of them being invested in being right. Rick’s biggest challenge came after PepsiCo bought a majority stake and urged CPK to build 50 or 100 restaurants a year. CPK built 15 and then 28, but many of them didn’t work out because, Rick says, the company lacked the infrastructure to choose and build the right locations. Rick describes the low point plainly: after PepsiCo brought in an inferior cheese to cut costs, watching a manager roll her eyes when he told managers he and Larry were still committed to quality, then calling Larry to say they were in real trouble. When PepsiCo spun off its restaurant businesses, their contract with PepsiCo, with the help of their lawyer, Bob Kahn, kept CPK from being spun off with them, and new private equity partners gave the company new life.

What You’ll Learn

Promote from within and tie promotions to your values: CPK promoted only people who lived its ROCK values, and by the time the company sold, many employees had been there 15, 18, and 20 years.

Trust your instincts, Rick says, advice from his friend Jack Carr, a former Navy SEAL turned bestselling author, but keep learning and assessing yourself, because you will not always be right.

Before choosing a partner, ask whether you are a good partner yourself, Rick says, then look for someone who shares your values, whether or not they are like you.

When you find someone you want, sell them on your vision instead of interviewing them: Rick and Larry recruited their first hire, server Julie Carruthers, after she waited on them at lunch, and she later became CPK’s vice president of human resources.

Do the right thing, which was CPK’s mantra: Rick says that as lawyers, he and Larry could argue both sides, but in how you conduct yourself in business and with people, there is usually a pretty bright line.

Debate hard, then own the decision together: Rick and Larry debated endlessly, but once they reached a decision, it was their decision, right or wrong, and they never went to sleep angry.

About Rick Rosenfield

Rick Rosenfield is the co-founder and former co-CEO of California Pizza Kitchen, which he and his law partner, Larry Flax, started in 1985 after both had served as federal prosecutors in Los Angeles and then practiced as defense attorneys. He grew up on Chicago’s South Side, earned his law degree at DePaul University, and began his legal career writing U.S. Supreme Court briefs for the Department of Justice at twenty-four. Rick and Larry served as CPK’s co-CEOs from 1985 to 1996 and again from 2003 until the company’s sale in 2011, and built a culture they later named ROCK: respect, opportunity, communication, and kindness. Rick is the author of the new memoir, The California Pizza Kitchen Story.

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