subsidiary founded 1989 ; 27 years ago 1989 in rancho santa margarita founder charlie zhang headquarters laguna hills california united states number of locations more than 70 products asian cuisine parent mandarin holdings group lp website www.pickupstix.com pick up stix is a laguna hills california based 1 fast casual restaurant chain that serves fresh asian cuisine through corporate owned restaurants and franchises in southern california . the company serves both dine in and take out customers and offers offsite catering and some delivery services . it also supplies meals to private schools as part of a school lunch program . it is owned by lorne goldberg s mandarin holdings parent company of leeann chin who bought the company from carlson companies in 2010 . 2 all of the company s food is cooked to order over high heat burners using traditional woks . in a readers poll in the june 2008 issue of san diego magazine 3 pick up stix was named one of three best takeout restaurants in san diego . contents 1 history 2 menu items 3 closings 4 references 5 external links history edit pick up stix stemmed from the innovation and fresh ideas of the chinese immigrant charlie zhang who came to the united states in 1982 with only 20 in his pocket . 4 he took traditional asian food and adapted it to the american palate by reducing the amount of oil and adding wine vinegar and soy sauce . he opened the first restaurant in rancho santa margarita california in 1989 . by 1992 there were two additional locations in orange county in irvine and laguna niguel . 5 two years later the chain expanded into san diego county with locations in del mar carlsbad and san diego . 6 in july 2001 the company was acquired by carlson restaurants worldwide a unit of the carlson companies . 7 the company is headquartered in san clemente california and owns and operates its own food processing facility . zhang remained as president and ceo of the company until his retirement in 2003 . 8 in 2010 carlson restaurants worldwide sold the company to lorne goldberg s mandarin holdings . there are over 70 locations throughout the united states . menu items edit the pick up stix menu offers chicken beef and shrimp entrees with the choice of white or brown rice . also the menu includes chow mein fried rice and other noodle dishes . all orders are cooked fresh and they cater to special order requests . pick up stix is most famous for their house special chicken which is a dark meat chicken with a sweet brown sauce predominantly containing brown sugar and soy sauce . other notable menu items include cream cheese wontons orange peel chicken mongolian beef beef and broccoli shrimp and vegetables asian lettuce wraps egg rolls the pick up stix cuisine can be compared to that of pei wei panda express or p.f. chang s. closings edit in early 2008 26 locations were closed in california nevada and arizona in order to focus on stronger markets . 9 in 2010 all locations in nevada and arizona were closed although pick up stix facebook page encouraged these states local customers to continue to enjoy their menu at various californian locations . however in late 2012 the food court in the excalibur hotel and casino in las vegas underwent a major renovation . as a result of the renovation manchu wok was removed and a branch of pick up stix was put in its place . 10 references edit contact us . pick up stix . retrieved february 26 2010 . dead link vomhof john jr. december 21 2010 . leeann chin owner buys pick up stix from carlson cos. . l.a. biz . 2008 readers poll picks . san diego magazine . june 2008 . archived from the original on 2011 08 07 . tillman jodie september 14 2016 . how pick up stix founder charlie zhang went from farmworker to millionaire . orange county register . register kitty morgan ; the orange county july 10 1992 . carting it home is half the fun chinese takeout from pick up stix is fresh family food and comes in those cartons . orange county register . p. p42 . subscription required help . cs1 maint extra text link kleven robin may 5 1994 . hungry at five or six try pick up stix . san diego union tribune . p. 44 . subscription required help . carlson restaurants to buy pick up stix . los angeles times . june 8 2001 . charles zhang president and ceo of pick up stix announces retirement ; search for successor is underway . pr newswire press release . march 6 2003 . anderson mark january 17 2008 . pick up stix closes eight local restaurants . sacramento business journal . excalibur hotel & casino introduces new castle walk food court . vegas news . december 10 2012 . external links edit los angeles portal companies portal food portal official website v t e fast food and fast casual restaurant chains in the united states chicken chains coffeehouse chains pizza chains hamburgers a & w back yard big boy burger king carl s jr. checkers rally s cook out fatburger five guys freddy s fuddruckers the habit hardee s in n out jack in the box johnny rockets krystal mcdonald s roy rogers shake shack smashburger sonic steak n shake wayback wendy s whataburger white castle asian l & l hawaiian barbecue manchu wok panda express pei wei asian diner pick up stix sarku baked goods au bon pain auntie anne s bruegger s cinnabon corner bakery cafe dunkin donuts einstein bros. great american cookies honey dew donuts krispy kreme mrs. fields nestl toll house panera bread pretzelmaker pretzel time shipley do nuts tim hortons t.j. cinnamons wetzel s winchell s beverages argo tea biggby coffee caribou coffee bean & tea leaf coffee beanery dunn bros gloria jean s jamba juice juice it up orange julius peet s planet smoothie robeks seattle s best coffee smoothie king starbucks teavana tropical smoothie cafe tully s frozen desserts baskin robbins ben & jerry s braum s bruster s carvel cold stone culver s dairy queen dippin dots fosters freeze friendly s golden spoon graeter s h agen dazs handel s kiwi yogurt maggiemoo s marble slab menchie s pinkberry red mango rita s sweet frog tastee freez tcby tropical sno tutti frutti yogen fr z yogurtland hot dogs hot dog on a stick nathan s famous portillo s wienerschnitzel mexican style tex mex baja fresh cafe rio chipotle del taco el pollo loco freebirds green red burrito moe s pancheros qdoba rubio s taco bell taco bueno taco cabana taco del mar taco john s taco mayo taco time wahoo s fish taco noodles fazoli s noodles & company sandwiches arby s atlanta bread blimpie capriotti s charley s cos cousins d angelo daphne s erbert & gerbert s firehouse subs great wraps jason s jerry s subs jersey mike s jimmy john s lenny s sub mcalister s deli miami subs mr. hero newk s eatery penn station port of subs pdq potbelly quiznos rax runza sandella s schlotzsky s steak escape subway togo s tubby s tudor s biscuit world which wich seafood arthur treacher s captain d s h. salt esquire ivar s long john silver s skippers seafood & chowder house defunct bresler s ice cream brigham s burger chef carrols d lites druther s henry s hamburgers hot n now hot sam pretzels naugles red barn sandy s zantigo retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title pick up stix & oldid 741206205 categories fast food chains of the united statesrestaurants in orange county californiachinese restaurantsrestaurants established in 1989companies based in orange county californiaregional restaurant chains in the united stateshidden categories all articles with dead external linksarticles with dead external links from september 2016pages containing links to subscription only contentcs1 maint extra text navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 26 september 2016 at 01 54 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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