California Pizza Kitchen closes Lake Grove eatery, leaving only 1 on Long Island

California Pizza Kitchen   has closed another Long Island location, leaving the chain with only one restaurant on the Island.

The chain closed its restaurant in Smith Haven Mall in Lake Grove on Dec. 10, a spokeswoman for the Costa Mesa, California-based company said Friday.

She did not respond to inquiries about why the restaurant closed or how many people it employed.

The Smith Haven Mall restaurant opened in 2007 and occupied 5,800 square feet.

In 2019, California Pizza Kitchen closed its 25-year-old eatery in the Westbury Plaza shopping center.

A restaurant representative told Newsday at that time that its “lease term has concluded.”

The only California Pizza Kitchen remaining on Long Island is a restaurant in the Walt Whitman Shops in Huntington Station.

Smith Haven Mall and the Walt Whitman Shops are owned by Simon Property Group Inc. in Indianapolis.

Simon declined to comment on the closing at Smith Haven.

Founded in 1985, California Pizza Kitchen has more than 180 restaurants across 11 countries and U.S. territories.

Citing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its operations, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July 2020, when it had more than 200 restaurants in eight countries and U.S. territories.

The company emerged from bankruptcy in November 2020 after completing a debt-for-equity transaction and eliminating more than $220 million in debt.

Most of the equity was acquired by the lenders the company had before its bankruptcy filing.

By Tory N. Parrish

tory.parrish@newsday.comToryParrish1

Tory N. Parrish covers retail and small business for Newsday. She has worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.