Dough still rising but some of the heat may be escaping: cost of launching takeout sites takes toll on California Pizza Kitchen.

WHITE-hot California Pizza Kitchen seems to be cooling, if only slightly.

The Los Angeles pizza purveyor, which has posted 15 consecutive quarters of same-store-sales growth, still appears on track to continue that streak. But CPK has trimmed its second-quarter earnings projection by 2 cents, to 21 cents per share.

California Pizza cited 2007 revenues to date and a one-time, two-cent charge related to marketing and developing its budding fast-casual chain, ASAP.

"Rising mortgage rates and energy costs are probably affecting demand everywhere," Chief Financial Officer Sue Collyns said in a phone interview. "Our demographic seems to withstand those pressures a little more than most."

CPK posted a comparative sales jump of 5.4 percent during the second quarter, while revenues were up nearly 17 percent. Full earnings will be reported August 7.

With those numbers, Collyns said the only reason for a dimmer outlook is to put aside some money for the ASAP chain, a scaled-down version of CPK with an abbreviated menu and takeout focus.

Conrad Lyon, analyst for FTN Midwest Securities Corp., said the numbers just don't seem to add up.

"Given what we know about the commodities environment in front of us, I would have thought they might have guided down more than that," he said.

Lyon said that the expectations given the revenues reported and the same-store-sales growth seemed to indicate that newer stores weren't enjoying the same robust honeymoon period of their predecessors.

"The stores opened in the quarter seem to be decelerating a little bit," he said.

As for the ASAP gamble, Lyon said he expected that CPK will be required to keep tweaking the concept, but he has little doubt that it will succeed, since there are plenty of hungry and time-starved people who like BBQ chicken pizza.

"You have to get the fight-sized box, the right food offering," he said. "Once they get those two pieces, it should be successful."

Staff reporter Emily Bryson York can be reached at [phone], ext. 235, or at [e-mail].