She got cheese, no mac. Now, California Pizza Kitchen has a mac and cheese deal for anyone
When you are stuck with lemons, the saying goes, you make lemonade. When California Pizza Kitchen had a customer's video about bad service go viral, the restaurant made … mac and cheese?
It all started last week when a TikTok-er who goes by the handle "fumptruck" ordered a dinner delivery from California Pizza Kitchen, which included a side order of mac and cheese. The problem: no macaroni in the cheese. The social media maven, of course, made a video, which has since been viewed nearly 4 million times.
"I'm having the worst week of my life. I'm injured, my boyfriend and I broke up, so I ordered mac and cheese from California Pizza Kitchen and they just sent me cheese. … There's no noodles," she said in the video and showed the cheese-filled container. "Are you (expletive) kidding me? I'm gonna cry."
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California Pizza Kitchen decided to respond in a way to make the incident "a fun and positive experience," the pizza chain said in a press notice sent to USA TODAY.
The company sent the customer another delivery earlier this week: a basket with a note, a certificate granting the customer free mac and cheese for a year, another certificate for free pizza for a year hidden in a pizza box – and a bunch of uncooked pasta.
So, @fumptruck made another video in which she read out loud the note, which included the words, "Oh, hey, I heard we forgot your mac and only delivered cheese to you. OMG how could this happen? … Free mac and cheese for a year and free pizza for a year. So sorry this happened."
She went on to say, "you guys, I've gone viral so many times and nothing as been as funny as this. … I am in actual shock right now."
Since then, @fumptruck has gotten a shipment of mac and cheese from Stouffer's and offers of gift cards from followers. Instead, she's asked followers to give to The People Concern, an L.A. organization that helps homeless and those living in violent homes.
California Pizza Kitchen wanted to make "make things right with her and then use it as an opportunity to remind everyone what matters to us," the company's chief marketing officer Dawn Keller said in a statement to USA TODAY. "Honestly, we had no idea it would go viral – we've been blown by the response. We appreciated that (she) had a sense of humor about it all, so we responded with something light-hearted that would make her day, and maybe bring a bit of joy to all our fans as well.”
California Pizza Kitchen: Mirth over mac and cheese mishap
California Pizza Kitchen wasn't done having fun, though.
The restaurant's vice president of culinary development Paul Pszybylski made his own video showing the proper way to make mac and cheese, garnering nearly 10 million views so far.
"At California Pizza Kitchen, there's nothing more important to us than the quality of our food and taking care of our guests," he said. "Since we recently gave one of our guests only half a mac and cheese, we're going to give all of our guests half off mac and cheese starting today (July 19)."
The deal is good at any CPK restaurant for takeout or delivery orders only, through the end of July with promo code: cheeseANDmac.
What, no deal on lemonade?
Follow Mike Snider on X and Threads: @mikesnider & mikegsnider.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: California Pizza Kitchen: Mac and cheese deal has saucy story