California Pizza Kitchen brings back vintage pizzas

Goat Cheese Pizza

It’s not only fashionable clothes that stage a comeback. Apparently, even pizzas do.

Pizza lovers will have a field day with the return of California Pizza Kitchen’s (CPK) most beloved pizza flavors that hasn’t been on the menu for years. It’s like having a blast from the past, not with a time machine, but with pizzas.

These pizza flavors include the Goat Cheese Pizza, Peking Duck Pizza, Tostada Chicken Pizza, Santa Fe Chicken Pizza, and Teriyaki Chicken Pizza. They were part of the initial menu when CPK opened in the country 16 years ago (except for the Teriyaki Chicken). 

Peking Duck Pizza

“We’re going back to our California roots. Filipinos today are very adventurous when it comes to their pizza so we’re giving them something new, yet not totally unfamiliar. While we use the original recipes in these vintage pizzas, there are new twists to some,” said Luisa Lomotan, senior operations director of Global Restaurant Concepts Inc. the local partner of CPK.

Goat Cheese Pizza, with Greek influences, is a vegetarian pizza with goat cheese, red and yellow capsicum and tomato sauce as base. Tostada Chicken Pizza and Santa Fe Chicken Pizza are a salute to Tex-Mex influences, a blend of American and Mexican cuisine which is pretty popular in California. Then there’s Peking Duck Pizza and Teriyaki Chicken Pizza, which have Asian influences.

“Our Goat Cheese Pizza now feature a different, more exciting grilled eggplant as topping while our Peking Duck Pizza now use the whole duck, instead of just the breast,” she said.

All five vintage pizzas were created with their original ingredients but with a California twist. The vintage pizzas are now created with CPK’s new hand-tossed pizza dough.

Santa Fe Chicken Pizza

According to Achie Rodriguez, the company’s president and CEO, these flavors were bestsellers when they were first introduced. But CPK, with its forward-thinking principle, likes to infuse something new and different for its customers to look forward to on a regular basis.

Not only is CPK bringing back these beloved pizza flavors, they’re also introducing a new dough formula, which enhances all the ingredients. They are now hand-stretched, the traditional and authentic way of making pizza—how CPK started.

“Our dough has honey in it because Filipinos love a bit of a sweet taste. That’s not the case, say, in the US,” said Lomotan.

With the dough hand-stretched, their pizzas now look more authentic and Italian, with sides that aren’t cut too perfectly, which makes it look more rustic.

Teriyaki Chicken Pizza

These vintage pizzas are available in all nine stores nationwide until August 31. CPK is eyeing to open at least three more locations before the year ends.

In the new CPK Vintage Pizza Passport promo, every purchase of a vintage pizza earns a stamp. Guests who try out all five vintage pizzas can exchange the fully stamped passport for P500 worth of CPK gift certificates.

The vintage pizzas will mark the first wave of hand-stretched pizzas to the CPK menu. Eventually, the restaurant will roll out a menu of all hand-stretched pizzas.   

He said: “We believe food wasn’t meant to be timeless. It should be surprising, delightful, and accessible.  Whenever people want pizzas that are unique and original, they know it will be in CPK.”

CPK is located in the following locations: Glorietta 3, Greenbelt 5, Powerplant Mall, Alabang Town Center, Shangri-la Plaza Mall, TriNoma, Promenade Mall, Lucky Chinatown, W Global Center, Harbor Point.

Tostada Chicken Pizza