Podcast: Larry Flax Works the Flexible Menu at LA Food Show
The chef-centric LA Food Show Grill & Bar spotlights showy cook stations and an eclectic menu.
By Monica Rogers, Contributing Editor -- Chain Leader, 3/1/2009 12:00:00 AM
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| Larry Flax, co-founder and co-CEO of California Pizza Kitchen, says the menu at his new chain, LA Food Show Grill & Bar, is more flexible. |
| MORE: Listen to download an extended audio interview with Larry Flax. |
Five years after opening their first LA Food Show Grill & Bar, Larry Flax and Rick Rosenfield have opened their second unit and are gearing up to grow the concept into a chain. As co-founders and co-chief executive officers of California Pizza Kitchen, the men are excited at having a new concept to create with. Flax talks about menus and his hopes for the concept.
What does the LA Food Show concept allow you to do with the food that you were not able to do before?
Pizza Kitchen required us to stay within certain boundaries-pizza, pasta and salads. But what LA Food Show allows us to do is to go where we please with the menu. We can go anywhere from hamburgers to steak and everything in between.
You've got several things you're doing with stir-fries. Wok cooking is pretty flashy to watch. I imagine you're making the most of that?
The kitchens in both restaurants are right in the middle. And in the new one, there's even a balcony overlooking the kitchen. We feature a variety of different cooking stations-such as the grill and rotisserie--but the wok has become more important as we've developed more dishes made in the wok. Things like calamari salad, dumpling soup, Dan Dan noodles, Kung Pao chicken are all prepared in the wok.
How important is it for you to create completely different experiences for guests at California Pizza Kitchen and at LA Food Show?
We've designed LA Food Show to go right next door to CPKs. Instead of bringing one restaurant with 12,000 square feet to a mall, now we can bring two 6,000-square-foot restaurants. In doing that, you have to make sure they're completely not identified with each other.
How has LA Food Show evolved since you opened the first unit?
The new unit is basically the first version on steroids. It's a very different look and much more upscale feeling. But we're still positioning this to be casual, family dining, accessible to families who want to spend an average check of $18 a person.
This concept feels very chef-intensive. Will you need to have many chefs on hand to do this right?
Oh, yes. Labor is going to be high. In this restaurant, we're going to have to make it on volume. If you get into this kind of quality of food, you better turn and burn.
What are some of the dishes that guests seem to be liking the best?
At the Beverly Hills location they've gone crazy for the Fried Chicken and Waffles-our riff on the Roscoe's classic dish-as well as the Miso Cod, a dish that Nobu did very well using butterfish.
What's new for 2009 with the menu?
We've actually called burgers out with their own section because we're getting so much interest in new burgers. The newest burger we have coming in 2009 is the Chile Verde Turkey Burger.
Will you be bringing in any development chefs to help with the food as you move forward?
For 24 years Rick and I have done the food. We've tried bringing chef consultants in in the past, but not one of the items they developed has ever made the menu. I think we'll stick with what we're doing.
MORE: Listen to download an extended audio interview with Larry Flax.
