Floppy discs

OK, look. I know it’s a chain. I know you can buy its products in the frozen section of your local supermarket. I don’t care. For my money, California Pizza Kitchen in the Market Square at Arden Fair has the best pizza in Sacramento. Mainly, it’s the crust. Thin. Floppy. Crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside. The Pizza Kitchen’s traditional cheese pizza is as close as you’re going to get to genuine New York pizza in the River City. Not that you have to settle for that. CPK features a menu with two dozen gourmet pies to choose from, everything from the original barbecued chicken pizza to Japanese eggplant to goat cheese with roasted peppers. My particular favorites are the grilled garlic shrimp and the Havana chicken varieties. And it doesn’t stop with pizza. There are excellent salads (the white balsamic Provencal is killer), great appetizers (got to have the Singapore shrimp rolls), pastas, focaccia sandwiches and specialty coffees and beers. The atmosphere, with its Mondrianesque interior, is pleasantly vibrant, and to top it off, there’s the location: right next to Arden Fair mall, the greatest shopping center in the world! Well, at least in Sactown. Add it all up, and you’re bound to be asking yourself why the heck you’re not at the California Pizza Kitchen right now.