Making A Good Thing Even Better: A Night Out at California Pizza Kitchen

Alamo City Moms Blog is excited to partner with California Pizza Kitchen to bring you information about their new menu and re-designed restaurant.  

Our Alamo City Mom Blog Staff was recently invited to dine at California Pizza Kitchen. Over the last couple of months we have added 4 members to the staff (myself included) and this was our first outing together. We were thrilled to get the chance to not only have night out for a dinner staff meeting but to also get the opportunity to sample the new menu and drink offerings at California Pizza Kitchen. I’m continually grateful to be a part of this team and feel so lucky to work alongside a group of smart, compassionate, and funny women. We all want to see this blog get even better by providing our readers with more viewpoints, more encouragement, more humor, and more local connections.

ACMB Staff at CPK

Much like our team, California Pizza Kitchen is taking a good thing and making it even better. While still making delicious pizzas, they have completely redesigned their restaurants to feature artisan pizzas, yes, but also unique salads, grilled meats and seafood, seasonally inspired dishes, and hand-shaken cocktails.

Our team was looking forward to some pizza and a night out. We were treated to so much more!

Hello to you CPK!
Hello to you CPK!

We started with a warm welcome and a chance to peruse the drink menu. Sangria is my drink of choice during the summer, so as soon as I saw the word ‘Sangria’ on the menu I started to stop reading and wanted to go ahead with my order. Silly me because the word following ‘Sangria’ was ‘Flight.’ Um, yes please. Brilliant!

What is better than one glass of Sangria? Three glasses.
What is better than one glass of Sangria? Three glasses.

The flight has three pours of house-made sangria: Orchard, Red-Berry, and Seasonal. I found choosing a favorite among these to be a bit like choosing a favorite child, all of them are delicious and refreshing. Our lovely waiter said the upcoming seasonal sangria for fall will be a Blood Orange sangria that is incredible. I promised to venture back and try it and trust me, that’s not a hard promise to keep. Other drink choices included a fresh Strawberry Lime Margarita and the very intriguing California Roots which had vodka, avocado, mint and fresh agave sour. The avocado gave it a nice richness, balancing out nicely with the tart sour.

California Roots cocktail at CPK

After we ordered drinks and toasted our new team, we were treated to our first course. Two flatbreads and a large salad, perfect for sharing, were placed on the table of a chorus of “Oohs….”

Flatbread and Salad at CPK

The California Fields Salad tastes like summer in a bowl. Watermelon, strawberries, field greens, feta, and pistachios are tossed together in a housemade champagne vinaigrette to make a delicious salad.  The sweetness of the fruit in the salad is a perfect foil to the savory flatbreads. We had both the Bianco flatbread (not pictured) with whipped truffle cream, Gorgonzola, Mozzarella and fresh sage and the table favorite, a Bacon and Roasted Brussel Sprouts Flatbread. The Bianco is definitely tasty, but the Bacon and Brussel Sprouts had our chatty table silenced as we savored each bite. Here’s a close up of the deliciousness:

Brussel Sprout and Bacon Flatbread at CPK

We could have stopped right there and called it a winning night. A round of drinks, technically called a flight of drinks, and a bacon+brussel sprout flatbread makes for a mighty good dinner but following the theme of the night, a good thing got better.

Out came two pizzas and we sampled a CPK Classic, the Original BBQ Chicken Pizza, and the Wild Mushroom Pizza. The BBQ Chicken pizza is considered iconic and most CPK guests have tried this pizza, as it has been on the menu since 1985. They haven’t messed with a good thing! The Wild Mushroom pizza is wonderfully earthy and salty; the white truffle oil topping takes the dish to the next level, as does the fresh scallions. I may have had 3 pieces, but who’s counting?

Original BBQ chicken pizza
Original BBQ chicken pizza

Again, I could have stopped eating at this point, left very happily, and my pants probably wouldn’t have felt so snug. Pardon me while I sound like a late-night infomercial pitchman…  but, wait, there’s more! And, oh yes, it got even better! We traveled from the pizza section of the menu to the Main Plate section. A perfectly medium rare Fire Grilled Ribeye with the most addictive creamy blue cheese butter appeared on our table along with a Hearth Roasted Halibut. We were split down the table as to our favorite. I loved the grilled asparagus and butternut squash farro that accompanied the halibut, but it’s hard to beat a well-cooked ribeye.

Grilled Ribeye and Roasted Halibut at CPK

The wise people of CPK knew that even when a group of ladies says they can’t eat another bite, that doesn’t refer to dessert. There is always room for dessert. Always.

Salted Caramel Pudding at CPK

Strawberry Shortcake at CPK

We finished off our feast with two delectable desserts: Strawberry Shortcake and Salted Caramel Pudding. The Strawberry Shortcake has a sublime candied lemon zest topping that took it a notch above a standard dessert. It also has tons of fresh strawberries, more than enough to allow each bite to contain fruit. The Salted Caramel pudding is rich and decadent, so I sat and happily finished off the dish while a few members of our team headed into the kitchen to try their hand at pizza dough tossing. One of these ladies may  have had the dough land on her face, but I’ll never tell which one. (Cough, cough, Brooke, cough.)

Pizza Tossing at CPK

Pizza Tossing 2 at CPK

Feeling completely spoiled and satiated and thoroughly enjoying Le Grand Courtage sparkling wine, we toasted to a wonderful night and the chance to discuss our vision and plans to make Alamo City Moms Blog even better while sitting in a restaurant that is doing the same. A worthy toast indeed. Cheers!

Cheers to ACMB and CPK

In San Antonio, there are two California Pizza Kitchen locations:

CPK Alamo Quarry Market

255 E. Basse Road, Ste 900
San Antonio, TX 78209

CPK San Antonio (near Huebner Commons)

11745 IH 10 West, Phase 418
San Antonio, TX 78230

Michelle
Michelle moved to San Antonio eight years ago and yet still feels like a newcomer. She is rather smitten with the Alamo City. She and her husband met at Texas A&M and started their marriage in Minnesota. After six years of very cold winters, they returned to Texas. Michelle has two kids (12 and 9), along with a very quirky rescue dog and two rather cute guinea pigs. A former corporate food scientist turned part-time yoga instructor, she still takes her food very seriously—she just doesn’t get paid for it anymore. She is fueled by tea, cold brew coffee, yoga, dog walking, books and quickly googling answers to her kids eleventy million questions.