March 18, 2005

Back to the table of Contents Page

Classifieds

Palo Alto Online

Something for everyone

by Aimee M. Male

Peking duck. Carne asada. Shrimp scampi. Thai chicken. The list reads like the menu options at a Bay Area eatery on any given night -- not like a list of pizza toppings.

But that's California, a melting pot of cultures and cuisines, with thousands of hungry mouths willing to try anything -- or everything -- to please our collective palate. In the 1980s, during the wild days of fusion cuisine, there was no limit to what one could find on a local menu.

It was this spirit of experimentation that gave birth to the restaurant chain California Pizza Kitchen, where fusion cuisine turned into family comfort food.

Fast-forward 20 years. California Pizza Kitchen now boasts more than 140 full-service restaurants in locations around the globe, and is still serving up a creative menu of pizzas, pastas and salads that borrow liberally from world cuisine.

But can a corporate chain churn out really good food? Judging by the crowds at Palo Alto's CPK (now 11 years old) on Cowper Street, one would have to say yes. California Pizza Kitchen at its core is a family restaurant -- it's reliable, consistent, efficient and clean. The ingredients are fresh, if not sophisticated; the menu is varied and creative and offers something for everyone -- especially if a Peking duck pizza doesn't appeal.

The restaurant's dining room is spacious and noisy, with an open kitchen bordered by a bar for singles, with booths and larger tables for groups. Although the wait staff sports a formal look, with starched shirts and ties, service is casual and friendly, if not a bit aloof. It is still a pizza joint, after all.

I sat at the bar one evening and watched my dinner as it was created. Being part of the action in the kitchen is fun, and a trick that many restaurateurs have discovered transforms a simple dinner into an evening's entertainment. Fire leaps from the pasta chef's skillets, while the pizza chef slides bubbling-hot pizzas out of the wood-burning oven and onto the counter with a flourish. It's a pity there's no dough tossing, as in traditional pizzerias -- instead, an institutional dough press stands in for the fun.

I ordered a pizza, as one would expect to do at a pizza kitchen. But to my surprise, pizzas aren't the most popular item at CPK, according to general manager Tom Elkins. "Salads in general sell a lot more" than pizzas, he said. The most popular salad is the original BBQ chicken chopped salad, ($10.29; $7.29 for half).

It's a mountain of Mexican-style salad, with black beans, corn, jicama and tortilla strips complete with chopped BBQ chicken and slathered with herb ranch dressing. Oh yes, there is some lettuce. Healthy? Well, it's the thought that counts.

There are more than a dozen salads from which to choose. The smoked bacon and Gorgonzola chopped salad ($10.99, $7.29 for half) comes with a tangled wig of deep-fried onions on top, which would have been sublime had they been fresh and warm. Crisp bacon and creamy Gorgonzola blue cheese is a classic combination, and the salad had plenty of both, along with sweet albeit very small jicama chunks.

For those of us who like carbs more than carrots, the Tricolore salad ($9.99) is the way to go. A traditional Italian thin pizza crust acts as an edible plate to a heaping mound of artisan greens, including arugula, baby red-leaf lettuce and radicchio tossed in Dijon-balsamic vinaigrette.

For the main event, I had to try the Original BBQ Chicken pizza ($10.79), as it was the pizza that launched the proverbial thousand restaurants in Beverly Hills back in 1985. Maybe nostalgia tastes better than reality, but my pie was simply passable, not mind-blowing. Barbeque sauce took the place of tomato, while just a few square chicken chunks appeared awkward and blocky in a sea of melted mozzarella and superfluous red onion slices.

Soothing the pizza purist in me, I enjoyed the Sicilian pizza ($11.99), which featured a smorgasbord of Italian meats and fresh tomatoes on a thin, Naples-style pizza crust. The crust was bubbly, golden and light with a cracker crunch, and the toppings generous.

All the pizzas at California Pizza Kitchen are served as a personal pizza, which means one pie is a sufficient serving for one person (about six small slices.) While this is a great option for finicky families who can't agree on a common crust, it does put a damper on serious sharing for large groups.

There are plenty of other options for sharing, however. For more fusion confusion, try the tortilla spring rolls ($6.49), which, as their name suggests, are flour tortillas rolled just like spring rolls, with three different options for fillings, then baked in the pizza oven. The Baja chicken rolls were my favorite, stuffed with grilled chicken, black beans, roasted corn and plenty of melted cheese.

Pasta options follow similar themes as the pizzas, with a few traditional Italian offerings, such as tomato basil spaghettini ($9.99) alongside wilder options such as chicken-tequila fettuccine ($12.59), which comes with spinach noodles and a tequila-lime-jalapeno sauce. I enjoyed the Thai linguini with shrimp ($14.59), which was doused with a savory peanut sauce complete with a chili kick, and peppered with crunchy peanuts.

Since we've all suffered from late-night pizza cravings, it's not surprising that more than 40 percent of CPK's business is take-out (the restaurant has its take out "window" at the bar, and also contracts with four other delivery services). The menu (which is the same for all restaurants, all over the country) can also be found online.

It's not often that a craving for a slice of pepperoni and cheese can contribute directly to the bottom line of a publicly traded multinational corporation. But CPK keeps it real, so to speak, by giving back to the local communities that supports it. The restaurant is available for school fundraisers as well as for other special events, Elkins said.

California Pizza Kitchen has cornered the market on fast food that's freshly made, with enough of a creative menu to keep things interesting. Fine dining it isn't, but that's not what the crowds are looking for -- they want reliable, wholesome food. After 11 years, that's exactly what CPK is still good at.

California Pizza Kitchen, 531 Cowper St. in Palo Alto; (650) 323-7332; www.cpk.com

Hours: Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Sunday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Reservations: Y Credit Cards: Y Bar: Y Takeout: Y Highchairs: Y Catering : Y Outdoor seating: N Noise level: Loud Bathroom cleanliness: good

E-mail a friend a link to this story.