Pizza kitchen readies for seconds

The Golden State is in its name, but California Pizza Kitchen has an appetite for Florida.

The chain, says CEO G.J. Hart, specifically targets growth in two areas of the state: from Tampa south to Sarasota and Palm Beach south to Miami. California Pizza Kitchen has more than 230 locations nationwide, including 14 in Florida. Some of those, like the popular one at International Plaza in Tampa, have recently gone through major renovations, from walls and ceilings to menus and training protocols down to new glasses and silverware.

“The people in Florida have been really really good to CPK,” Hart tells Coffee Talk in a recent phone interview from his Los Angeles office. “We are excited about what Florida will bring us in the near future.”