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:
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
