---

California
Pizza Kitchen
woking around

California Pizza Kitchen in Kahala Mall is reopened after a remodeling project that cost more than the restaurant did to build 17 years ago.

CPK co-founder Larry Flax could not divulge the renovation cost, but revealed that one detail only cost $35.

That is the price of a simple device used to convert a single gas-burner to a burner suitable for wok-frying, he laughed.

The wok-conversions are necessary for all CPKs because of the high heat needed to roll out new menu items, such as Lettuce Wraps with chicken, shrimp, or both, served with a savory, spicy sauce Flax devised. He and partner Rick Rosenfield create all the restaurant chain's recipes at home and always have. They were actually creating recipes as lawyers, before they left the legal profession to become restaurateurs.

The newly reconfigured CPK measures more than 7,200 square feet, after adding 1,700 square feet from a former next-door yogurt shop. It also has added staff.

The remodeled restaurant also features televisions, which Flax never liked in restaurants, but he sees the flat-screens as being more like framed art, as opposed to their large, boxy predecessors.

The original grand opening was followed by 11 days of rain. With the reopening, "it's raining again," joked CPK co-founder Larry Flax. He was told back then that the rain is a local-style blessing, which the restaurant's cash registers proved true enough.

The Kahala and Ala Moana locations are consistently among the top-selling restaurants companywide, according to Flax.

CPK will be returning some of that largesse to the community in a weeklong fund-raiser to benefit Variety School of Hawaii. The CPK Kahala store will donate 25 percent of this week's pizza sales to the school, but is guaranteeing a donation of no less than $5,000, Flax said.

CPK's Kahala, Pearlridge and Ala Moana stores will be joined by a new Oahu sister restaurant in Waikiki by mid-2006. The company has just signed a lease for about 7,000 square feet of second-floor space on Consolidated Theatre's Waikiki redevelopment.

"The business climate for both locals and for tourists on Kalakaua Avenue is just terrific," said Joel Mayer, CPK vice president for real estate.

"The city has done an outstanding job in guiding the development there and we are really thrilled to be a part of that. The restaurant will have a an open-air lanai" and all the benefits of being on Kalakaua.

Flax and Rosenfield are scouting locations for a restaurant concept they launched in June of 2003, called L.A. Food Show. It is more of a grill and bar serving everything the duo loves but doesn't serve at CPK, Flax said.

That includes hamburgers, steaks, short-ribs that are cooked for seven hours and fish tacos. One of Flax's favorite comfort foods, patty melts, have been added to the menu recently and are among L.A. Food Show's top sellers, as is the poke martini -- it is not a beverage, but a seafood salad featuring ahi, shrimp and avocado served in a martini glass.

The first and so far only L.A. Food Show is in Manhattan Beach, Calif. It is likely a second California location will be established before Hawaii gets one, but that's not set in stone. The restaurant's performance at its 18-month mark showed double-digit growth, Flax said.

CPK's comparable store sales have shown 8.7 percent growth year-over-year, "and it would have been 10 percent," but seven restaurants had to be temporarily closed in Florida due to the series of hurricanes that bombarded the state. All have resumed operations.

Mr. and Mrs. Mornings

KHON2's morning news team of Tannya Joaquin and Kirk Matthews have been joined by a character formerly known to viewers as "Mrs. Matthews."

The veteran reporter and anchor better known as Linda Coble has joined the morning news crew on an interim basis, while weather anchor Trini Kaopuiki is on maternity leave.

The temporary assignment is "a great development," said Rick Blangiardi, general manager, who has known Coble since both worked at KGMB-TV starting back in the 1970s. For Matthews, the addition of Coble to the show will add fun "and heat, as only a wife can," Blangiardi chuckled.

FMs for sale

Day three of the Federal Communications Commission FM radio license auction on Friday saw new high-bidders at the end of the day's action.

Maui-based Visionary Related Entertainment LLC, the only local company bidding for the 10 Hawaii licenses, ended Friday as the high-bidder for licenses in Captain Cook, Honokaa and Kurtistown, on the Big Island.

Indiana-based Bechtel Broadcasting LLC, which bears no known relationship to Bechtel Corp., was the standing high-bidder for licenses in Haiku and Kihei on Maui, Kaunakakai on Molokai, and Nanakuli and Wahiawa on Oahu.

The $1.125 million and $926,000 bids were among the five highest bids for 288 licenses nationwide. The auction resumes tomorrow.

---