How is California Pizza Kitchen celebrating its 40th anniversary? New menu, offers, fake rebranding and more to know
California Pizza Kitchen (CPK), the American casual dining restaurant chain, recently celebrated its 40th anniversary. On March 27, 2025, the brand brought back fan-favorite dishes, upgraded its “Thank You Card” promotion that rewards every guest, and launched a fake rebrand campaign.
According to Business Wire, earlier this week, California Pizza Kitchen played a rebrand stunt by giving its logo a hypebeast-inspired look to promote its 40th anniversary. Feigning a mid-life crisis, the brand debuted “new branding” across all its social media channels.
Meanwhile, the label also tapped actress Busy Philipps, who was also a former employee at CPK, for a new ad campaign. Hinting at the restaurant’s mid-life crisis, California Pizza Kitchen dropped a mockumentary style video with a tagline, “We’re 40 & Fine with It!”
Philipps said in a press release on March 27, 2025, via Business Wire:
"I've been a huge fan of CPK ever since I worked there as a hostess back in the day, so of course I was thrilled to help them celebrate this incredible anniversary."
Speaking of how she helped the brand to embrace this milestone, the actress mentioned:
"My job was to remind CPK that at 40 years old, there’s no need for reinvention. Their legacy and continued leadership of creating incredible flavors and lasting memories is exactly what will keep people of all ages loving the brand for many years to come."
California Pizza Kitchen's new menu
CPK is also bringing back some of its most iconic dishes from the past four decades. Selected by guests, team members, Executive Chef Paul Pszybylski, and the brand’s founders, Rick Rosenfield and Larry Flax, the limited-time menu is available through May 19, 2025.
The menu includes:
- Rosemary Roasted Potato & Grilled Chicken Pizza: Picked by founders Rick Rosenfield and Larry Flax, this dish features lemon cream sauce, grilled chicken, roasted Yukon gold potatoes, mozzarella, and parmesan cheeses. The pizza is finished with rosemary and Greek oregano.
- Chicken Milanese: Picked by Chef Paul, this dish serves panko-crusted chicken breast, with arugula and checca. It is finished with shaved parmesan and lemon.
- Waldorf Chicken Salad: Chosen by CPK’s team members, this dish is a mix of field greens, grilled chicken, red grapes, Granny Smith apples, celery, candied walnuts, and Gorgonzola. Customers can choose either Dijon balsamic vinaigrette or blue cheese dressing for this salad.
- Tortilla Spring Rolls: Picked by guests, this menu item features hand-rolled flour tortillas that are stuffed with a choice of filling, including Baja Chicken, Thai Chicken, or Mediterranean. This item is then baked in a pizza oven.
CPK's Thank You Card Promotion offer explored
California Pizza Kitchen is offering its adult guests a Thank You Card containing a hidden prize, which will be disclosed at their next visit. Whether the customer is dining in the restaurant or asking for takeout, or getting delivery, from now through May 11, 2025, they will either get meal discounts, gift cards at major brands, or even cash prizes up to $40,000.
To avail this offer, from March 2 through June 8, customers can visit any full-service CPK restaurant location with their unopened Thank You Card and have their prize revealed by a restaurant manager.
Notably, California Pizza Kitchen is also giving a second chance to win online. By scanning the QR code on their card, guests can join the CPK rewards to get an instant $5 bonus and a chance for a five-day cruise getaway.
CPK’s fake rebranding stunt explored
According to Fast Company, CPK debuted its "rebrand" stunt on its website by replacing its known yellow logo and wordmark with a silver chrome logo plus, the shortened name "CPK."
Meanwhile, on social media, the brand shared several "parody" videos which hinted at a new identity, featuring silver graphics, flashy lights, slogans like "Fresh. To. Death", and more. It seemingly revamped its look to give more party vibes than presenting its original purpose of being a family-friendly eatery.
Dawn Keller, CMO of California Pizza Kitchen, told Fast Company about the fake rebrand:
"We were never of the opinion that we had to upend the apple cart and totally rebrand."
Keller, who joined CPK about a year ago, further said:
“It was really more about, ‘How do we rejuvenate this brand, amplify it, but do it in a fresher way than we’ve done?’ There was a bit of parody that we were doing, knowing that some brands evolve, and it’s great, but some, you feel like they jump the shark.”
While the pizza brand's hypebeast look lasted a short while, the intention was to usher CPK into a more marketing era for its 40th anniversary on social media.