See LA pizzeria proprietor’s saucy reply to CPK’s crusty demand
Name it a pizz’ ‘n’ desist!
California Pizza Kitchen acquired a bit crusty when the chain discovered a scorching new LA pizzeria has a BBQ rooster pie on its menu it dared to name the “CPK.”
California Pizza Kitchen — which began in Beverly Hills within the ’80s and now has 131 places in 27 states — despatched Anna Pizza chef-owner Thomas DeSantis a letter asking him to vary the identify of his “CPK” pie or else CPK’s authorized crew would sink its enamel right into a trademark infringement case.
DeSantis — initially from Queens — responded by defiantly eradicating the pizza from his menu and slamming California Pizza Kitchen’s letter face down into what he declared can be the ultimate “CPK” dupe to come back out of his oven. (The missive made for an unlikely topping!)
The California Pizza Kitchen letter, seen by Web page Six Hollywood, began off by saying, “Phrase travels quick on the planet of pizza, and your barbecue rooster creation has clearly been making waves. Frankly, we’re flattered.”
However, “once we heard that your menu contains a barbecue rooster pizza lovingly known as the ‘CPK’ we had a second. A proud second. A nostalgic second. A evenly authorized second,” the letter continues.
“You see, whereas imitation is the sincerest type of flattery, trademark regulation is the least versatile type of friendship,” wrote California Pizza Kitchen. “And as a lot as we’d like to consider that ‘CPK’ now universally stands for ‘Culinary Pizza Kindredness,’ our attorneys (pretty individuals, actually, simply not recognized for his or her humorousness) insist that it nonetheless factors relatively particularly to us.”
“Now, earlier than anybody begins drafting something with the phrases ‘stop’ or ‘desist’ in daring font, we thought we’d take a extra… artisanal method,” stated the CPK letter earlier than suggesting a number of choices to squash the proverbial beef, together with Anna rebranding its BBQ rooster pizza with out “CPK” and hanging a “Nice Pizza Peace Treaty.”
The (mildly) spicy letter closes by saying, “We imply none of this as a risk. Anybody placing actual effort into actual meals deserves to maintain doing precisely that. We simply must type this out earlier than our authorized crew begins feeling a way of goal, and no person needs that. Let’s maintain it pleasant. Ideally over pizza. We’d like to resolve this in a manner that retains issues pleasant, collaborative, and — ideally — nonetheless scrumptious.”
In an Instagram video reply, DeSantis addressed the piping scorching controversy by holding up the CPK letter and telling his followers, “We acquired an official cease-and-desist letter from California Pizza Kitchen as a result of we named our BBQ rooster pizza the CPK, proper?” He admitted, “Loads of our meals on our menu that we ‘copied’ quote-unquote from different individuals — we would like you to know we copied it proper? So we named it after the [places] we copied it from. Therefore, the ‘CPK.’” “It got here from California Pizza Kitchen,” the pizza maestro added, holding up CPK’s particular two-page supply.
“They don’t prefer it,” DeSantis added of his homage (dough-mage?). “They’re not OK with it. They despatched us this two-page letter about the right way to rectify it. So we’re going to rectify it proper? They’re a bit late. Whereas it’s good, it’s outdated and nobody orders it… so we’re going to take it off the menu. That is the final one we’re going to make… I’m going to eat it for lunch as a farewell, as a result of I really like this pizza. However it may possibly now not be on the menu.”
He additionally stated: “They wished us simply to rename it, however we’re going to tug it off as a result of it doesn’t promote. You guys are clearly over. We’re over it. California Pizza Kitchen’s over it. So to CPK, to your legal professionals in Manhattan, right here you go — it’s gone. It’s nonetheless an ideal pizza, we’re gonna throw it out although.”
He then slammed the letter into the sauce, saying, “There you go CPK, it’s off the menu. Love ya!”
Anna Pizza, named after DeSantis’ mother, will seemingly survive with out the merchandise on his menu: The LA Occasions wrote final month that followers are lining up on the Burbank Blvd. spot in Valley Village.
Anna’s CPK pizza was a $25 pie with “breaded rooster, BBQ sauce, sliced pink onion, mozzarella with recent cilantro,” whereas the California Pizza Kitchen model, at $22.45, consists of “BBQ sauce, grilled rooster, smoked Gouda, pink onions and recent cilantro.”
Maybe sarcastically, CPK was based by former federal prosecutors Rick Rosenfield and Larry Flax.
Both manner, one other pie on Anna’s menu is named the “L’industrie,” which simply occurs to be the identical identify as NYC’s hottest pizza spot.
Once we requested DeSantis for touch upon the CPK controversy he stated through electronic mail: “We don’t have the unique letter lol as we ruined it for our video with BBQ sauce.”
