California Pizza Kitchen co-founder opens new Roman-style pizza chain with expansion plans Rick Rosenfield’s Roca has a California location open, with 2 more to come by the end of the year
California Pizza Kitchen co-founder Rick Rosenfield, who stepped down as CEO of CPK in 2011 when it was acquired by private-equity firm Golden Gate Capital, is bringing another restaurant to the pizza segment with the introduction of Roca, a Roman-style pizza restaurant in California.
This isn’t California Pizza Kitchen 2.0, however, as Rosenfield has no intentions of growing the business to such heights, but he does want to grow it nationwide.
Pies for Justice raises money for the Los Angeles chapter of Black Lives Matter and Süprmarkt, which provides affordable organic produce to communities in South L.A.
Pies for Justice raises money for the Los Angeles chapter of Black Lives Matter and Süprmarkt, which provides affordable organic produce to communities in South L.A.
Rick Rosenfield, the original co-founder of California Pizza Kitchen, along with his wife Esther, announces the forthcoming opening of ROCA – an elevated fast-casual interpretation of Roman-style street food pizza “al taglio,” which translates to “by-the-cut.” Rick and Esther are joined by Chief Development Officer & Chief Operating Officer Steve Rich, Director of Operations Ohad Yosef, and Executive Pizza Chef Luigi Roditis. Opening Friday, May 28, 2021 as a pop-up experience at The Americana at Brand in Glendale, the restaurant celebrates the Roman origin of its style of pizza (“RO”) with a California-inspired ethos (“CA”), which blends creativity and commitment to premium products and ingredients sourced locally and internationally: think fresh produce from the Santa Monica Farmers’ Market, specialty cheeses, etc.; but what really sets ROCA apart is its artisan dough, perfected down to a science after more than 70 years of research and development
CPK Co-Founder Debuts Roman-Style Pizza Pop-Up in Glendale
ROCA opens soon in the former Tsujita space in Glendale
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A new restaurant is ready to take up residence at the Americana at Brand in Glendale soon. Named ROCA, it’s expected to open Memorial Day weekend with a shortened menu of Roman-style slices and more, all backed by a couple of big names in the LA pizza scene.
The new Roca, which will take over the former Tsujita at the Americana (which closed after a four-year run), comes from California Pizza Kitchen co-founder Rick Rosenfield and his partner/wife Esther Rosenfield. The pair already have a prodigious background in popularizing a particular kind of pizza in LA (and beyond), but for this new place they’ve brought on chef Luigi Roditis of Il Romanista in El Segundo to run the show. Fans of Roman-style slices will remember Il Romanista as the basically the first entrant into that market, way back in 2017, before places like Triple Beam Pizza in Highl