California Pizza at California Prices

I remember the first time I tried "gourmet pizza."

I also remember thinking, "Why is this $11.99?" Don't get me wrong it was definitely good, but paying over $10 for a personal pizza hardly seems worth it.

Last night though, someone else was paying so I had good reason to go to California Pizza Kitchen. I have eaten there many times before last night and I'm usually impressed with their service and food quality.

The best part about CPK are the tiny little plates they already have on the table. They are good for a few different reasons.

1. For the bread, however the bread isn't too amazing because the butter comes in tiny little hard to open packets.

2. The pizza comes on a plate that is huge and now you have some place to pull a slice off and eat it.

For some reason, we decided to get an appetizer which was spectacular. They were three different types of spring rolls - all delicious. We took our time deciding what to order as I was determined not to get pizza on this particular visit.

I have only had one other thing besides pizza at CPK which was a chicken Caesar sandwich. It was very good, but I felt like I was cheating on the pizza. On our visit last night I was comfortable finding something on the menu that didn't make me feel like I was missing out on the pizza yet, I was unsuccessful.

I did go with a pizza I have never had before - the Neapolitan Sicilian. Basically this is a thin crust pizza with Salomi, spicy ham and sausage. Price - $13.99.

My pizza was amazing. The spicy flavor combination was perfect. My question is, how can CPK get away with charging so much for a tiny little pizza?! I know Domino's is no where near gourmet, but you can walk out with a pizza for $5. Not to mention, my favorite off brand pizza shop charges $11.99 for a large cheese!

I guess the only answer to this is the same answer Starbucks has - "for the experience."

CPK can also pull it off because of the word - "gourmet" or as their website says "hearth baked" and "crafted to perfection". Trust me - the pizza is outstanding, but the prices shouldn't be as high as they would be in California!

In an interesting marketing move, CPK also gave us "raffle" tickets at the end of our meal. The ticket however was sealed in an envelope. Our server told us that inside the envelope could be a trip, dinner for two, $500 etc. The only way to see what's in our envelope is to come back in to the restaurant and open it in front of a manager - otherwise it's not valid.

What do you think I did? I started to open it (as I had no intention of coming back before the contest ended in June) and the manager stopped me! Although, he did let me off the hook. He finished opening mine for me and inside was a dinner for two (valued up to $40). He signed the certificate saying he would let it slide although technically it wasn't valid.

I can sum this up pretty quickly:

Outstanding expensive pizza - paid for by someone else - free dinner for two.

Boo ya!