Restaurant launches new look
California Pizza Kitchen is usually associated with, well, hot and fresh pizza, churning out hundreds of them a day. But the company is trying to change its image.
California Pizza Kitchen is usually associated with, well, hot and fresh pizza, churning out hundreds of them a day. But the company is trying to change its image.
The popular restaurant chain opened its first reimagined California Pizza Kitchen location in the country in July as part of its Next Chapter initiative, and it chose The Woodlands’ Hughes Landing as its launching point.
“Most people, when they come to California Pizza Kitchen or they hear the name, they think they’re going into a pizza house. It’s not even close to what it is we do,” said General Manager Josh Kiblinger.
The rebranded restaurant includes a redesigned modern interior, an expanded menu with seasonal options, locally-sourced ingredients and works with Houston-based produce distributor Brothers Produce. The “chic” redesign is one way the company is elevating its brand and attracting new customers.
“You want to be close to home. When you have those ingredients from nearby, it’s a lot better than something that comes out of a truck frozen,” said kitchen manager Bret Bartelme. “Better ingredients. Better food.”
In addition to the restaurant’s popular pizza choices and full-service bar, it serves up soups and salads, flatbreads and even entrée options like grilled ribeye, Mahi Mahi tacos and halibut. Some seasonally inspired food include their Maine lobster flatbread and tricolore salad pizza.
The restaurant took about 10 months to build out, finalize its menu, hire and train personnel, and put the finishing touches before opening its doors to hungry patrons. In advance of the opening, management held recruitment job fairs at some high schools in The Woodlands, Lone Star College-Montgomery and Sam Houston State University.
“I’ve been really genuinely impressed with the kids in the area,” Kiblinger said. “I don’t know if it makes it unique, but I’ve been really surprised and happily so. There are good peeps over here.”
The lakefront eatery in Hughes Landing is surrounded by several large office buildings — Hughes Landing One, Two and Three, Exxon Mobil — a luxury apartment complex called One Lakes Edge, an amphitheater and several other real estate developments. Future developments in Hughes Landing include luxury condo development the Treviso at Waterway Square and an Embassy Suite hotel.
Staff at the restaurant pride themselves on their customer-oriented approach, even offering businessmen and women working in Hughes Landing a lift back to their offices on the restaurant’s golf cart.
“We’re more than just a restaurant on the corner; we want to be so much more than that,” Kiblinger said. “I want to get to know people’s names, their families, what they like, dislike and are passionate about.”