Rick Rosenfield, cofounder of California Pizza Kitchen, has expressed reluctance to launch the iconic restaurant chain in California if given the opportunity today. Established in 1985 in Beverly Hills alongside Larry Flax, the brand is known for its signature barbecue chicken pie and has expanded to 185 locations, many still operating within California. However, Rosenfield indicated that if he were starting the company now, he would choose Florida over California as the preferred location for growth.
Rosenfield attributed his preference to what he describes as a substantially less business-friendly environment in California compared to a decade ago. Speaking to Fox News, he said the state has become more challenging for businesses to operate in, citing factors such as labor shortages, rising costs, and California’s fast-food minimum wage legislation. He noted that conditions worsened following the COVID-19 pandemic, which significantly impacted California Pizza Kitchen’s operations, contributing to the chain’s bankruptcy protection filing in 2020.
After relocating to Florida in 2024, Rosenfield pointed to the contrast between the two states as particularly sharp, reinforcing his view of California’s declining appeal for entrepreneurs and companies. His experience reflects a broader trend of corporate relocations away from California, which has seen several major firms move their headquarters to other states in recent years.
Among the notable departures, McKesson Corp. and Charles Schwab shifted their headquarters from San Francisco to Texas in 2019, followed by Oracle and Hewlett Packard Enterprise in 2020. Tesla moved its headquarters to Texas in 2021. The migration continued in 2024, with Chevron, SpaceX, and X (formerly Twitter) also transferring their principal offices to Texas. Elon Musk and Chevron cited regulatory burdens and political challenges as key reasons for their relocations.
These moves have been widely interpreted as indicative of California’s shifting business climate, where rising operational costs, regulatory pressures, and labor market issues have influenced corporate decisions to seek more favorable environments elsewhere. While many companies retain significant operations in California, the trend underscores a growing competition among states to attract and retain business investment.