As the saying goes, when you're given lemons, make lemonade. So when a California Pizza Kitchen customer posted a video about their poor service that went viral, the restaurant made… mac and cheese.
It all started last week, when a TikTok user known by the handle “fumptruck” ordered dinner delivery from California Pizza Kitchen. The side included macaroni and cheese. The problem was, there was no macaroni in the cheese. Of course, the social media maven made a video, which has since been viewed nearly 4 million times.
“I'm having the worst week of my life. I'm hurt and I just broke up with my boyfriend so I ordered mac and cheese from California Pizza Kitchen and all they sent was cheese…no noodles,” she said in the video, showing a container full of cheese. “Are you kidding me? I could cry.”
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California Pizza Kitchen decided to take action to make the incident a “pleasant and positive experience,” the pizza chain said in a press notice sent to USA Today.
The company sent another delivery to customers earlier this week: a basket with a note, a certificate entitleing the customer to a year of free mac and cheese, another certificate for a year of free pizza hidden in a pizza box, and a bunch of fresh pasta.
So @fumptruck made another video in which he read the note aloud, which included the words, “Oh dear, I heard you forgot your mac and only delivered cheese. Oh my goodness, how does this happen?… FREE mac & cheese for a year and FREE pizza for a year. I'm so sorry this happened.”
She continued, “Guys, my videos have gone viral many times before but never as funny as this… I'm really shocked right now.”
Since then, @fumptruck has received a delivery of macaroni and cheese from Stouffer's and has fielded offers of gift cards from her followers, which she instead encouraged them to donate to The People Concern, a Los Angeles organization that helps people who are homeless or living in violent homes.
California Pizza Kitchen: Celebrating Macaroni and Cheese Fails
But the fun didn't end there at California Pizza Kitchen: The restaurant's vice president of culinary development, Paul Przybylski, created a unique video on how to make mac and cheese the right way, which has been viewed nearly 10 million times to date.
“At California Pizza Kitchen, nothing is more important than the quality of our food and the hospitality of our customers,” he said. “Recently, we have only been able to provide half a serving of mac and cheese to each customer, so starting today (July 19), we are offering all customers half-price mac and cheese.”
This offer is only applicable on take-out or delivery orders at CPK restaurants through the end of July by using promo code cheeseANDmac.
What, no lemonade?
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