Rick Rosenfield and Larry Flax opened the first California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) on March 27, 1985 in Beverly Hills after wanting to give the public pizza with a twist. Rosenfield and Flax broke the mold by opening up a whole new pizza taste experience. They created the Original BBQ Chicken Pizza, and pizza lovers were jolted out of the pepperoni-mode and thrown into BLT bliss, Thai Chicken euphoria and Jamaican Jerk nirvana. Not limiting their menu to just pizza, they created an innovative selection of pasta, salads, and to-die for-desserts.