Thursday, September 3, 2020

[NEWSFLASH] California Pizza Kitchen DID Close in Dunwoody

On Sunday, August 30th, California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) permanently closed its restaurant located near Perimeter Mall at 4600 Ashford Dunwoody Road in Dunwoody, despite representations from as high as CPK's Legal Department, as explained below, that it would not.  Indeed, amateur signage posted at the restaurant confirmed the closure to would-be patrons.  By Sunday evening, the restaurant's dumpster was seen full of CPK signage, equipment and other materials.   Additionally, CPK posted the following message on its website linked to the "Perimeter Mall" location: 

"Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and related lease challenges with our landlords, we regret to inform you that we have closed this CPK restaurant. We look forward to welcoming you at our other locations and invite you to continue checking CPK.com for updates." 

Interestingly, as ToNeTo Atlanta readers may recall, we first reported on the purported Dunwoody CPK closure August 7.  In the days that followed we were asked first by the restaurant's PR firm to remove the story, and then were threatened with "aggressive legal action" by their attorney if we did not remove, what the attorney characterized as "[our] blatantly false" blog entry.  In one email exchange with us, the attorney asserted, and we quote from her August 12th letter:  "CPK has no intentions to close the Dunwoody location, and your statements to the contrary are plainly and blatantly false." (italics added).  

In a separate exchange, the bankrupt restaurant chain's attorney asserted "Your false blog entry constitutes defamation, for which you can be held legally liable. It has damaged CPK, and has caused anxiety and concern among both our employees and guests." 

Despite making adjustments to our post to report CPK's self-described efforts to "terminate select leases", we were eventually sent a Cease & Desist letter, which stated materially: "We demand that you cease and desist from continuing to publish this false story. Please completely remove this entry from your blog and issue a retraction within 24 hours of the date of this letter. If you fail to comply with this request, we will consider our options for more aggressive legal action against you."    

After consulting our attorney, we removed both the original post AND (at CPK's further request), the link to the post via our Facebook page on August 18. [The post has been reinstated following the closure.]     

If, notwithstanding the restaurant's closure and threatened, but now empty, legal action you are confused with the turn of events, so are we.  

What are your thoughts on the recent closure of CPK in Dunwoody?  

Please share your thoughts below  

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

The fact that they threw away that perfectly good painting of corn boggles the mind.

Anonymous said...

Did you scoop up that sweet painting of the corn?

Anonymous said...

Might be time to threaten the same action to them claiming defamation of the blog when info was in fact accurate

Anonymous said...

I’ve unfortunately had the displeasure of using CPK for catering orders recently. They have terrible food...they didn't used to, but quality and service fell way off, as do most restaurants once they think they have a following. You can only do pizza so many ways, but if they’d just mad it taste good...it might not be bankrupt. They will not be missed by anyone I know or have served.

Howard said...

There's so many people making cheeper and usually better pizza in the market. I've always loved going to CPK as a special dinner growing up for ”fancy” pizza. But now I just hit MOD or Your Pie. Sorry to see them go.

Anonymous said...

From the point of view of a Dunwoody resident and business owner, I just am curious as to what your motivation is in being this nasty about things? Is being "right" so important to you that it supercedes your ability to acknowledge that this closure did in fact impact real human beings? I guess I've never truly understood what publishing an article about a pizza place closing 24 days before it actually closed, accomplishes in the grand scheme of things. If you were fighting to keep businesses in Dunwoody or perhaps informing an at risk population that one of their resources would no longer be available to them, I could perhaps understand. The true loss is to the community who patronized this establishment and the employees who are displaced and concerned. I'm sorry this is a source of Facebook fodder for you. My opinion is maybe you should find some greater meaning in life so your headstone might read something more than, I told you all the CPK in Dunwoody was really closing. Just a thought...

Anonymous said...

@anonymous: You never understood what it accomplishes in the grand scheme of things? It gives the people who depend on the restaurant to feed themselves and their families a heads up to look for alternative employment.

"AS A BUSINESS OWNER" yeah bud your general stance on the subject gave you away immediately. You attack someone for breaking news of an imminent closure, and how it's impacting "REAL HUMAN BEINGS", but are you as passionately attacking the shitbag restaurant owners, the vast majority of who shutter a their doors overnight without so much as a whisper, and let their "REAL HUMAN BEING" employees know by chaining the doors at 4am and taping a note on the door for them to show up to work to? Thought not.

Why else get so mad about the news coming out early? If they're closing anyways, why does it matter? Honestly, tell me. The news drives a spike in business from folks wanting to get their last meals in before you're done for good. Every other business broadcasts it like there's no tomorrow to get their last bit of business before calling it. The restaurant industry loves to keep it as quiet as possible to keep staff getting wind and jumping ship and finding other jobs. Because how dare someone give them a heads up to secure financial stability, when might cause staffing shortages leading up to closure right?


Eat shit, man. Honestly.

Disneypal said...

I liked CPK and that is the location I always went to - I am sad to see it closed - before the pandemic, I often had to wait for a table because they were so busy. Such a shame to see them close.

It is unreal they threatened you with legal action and stated it was not closing, when in fact, they knew that it most likely would be.

It is a shame - I feel bad for the employees that are out of work.

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