Panda Inn facts for kids
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| Genre | Sit-down Chinese restaurants |
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| Founded | Pasadena, California (June 8, 1973) |
| Founder |
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| Headquarters | |
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Number of locations
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4 |
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Area served
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Southern California |
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Key people
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| Owner | Panda Restaurant Group |
| Parent | Panda Restaurant Group |
Panda Inn is a group of sit-down Chinese restaurants found in California. It is owned and run by the Panda Restaurant Group. When it first started, Panda Inn wanted to introduce new kinds of Chinese food. This included Mandarin and Sichuan cuisine dishes. These were new to Southern California, which mostly had Cantonese cuisine before.
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History of Panda Inn
The very first Panda Inn was started by Andrew and Peggy Cherng. Andrew's father, Master Chef Ming-Tsai Cherng, also helped. They all used to live in the Yangzhou area of China.
Opening the First Restaurant
Their first restaurant opened on June 8, 1973. It was located in Pasadena, California. After Ming-Tsai Cherng passed away, a second Panda Inn opened. This was in 1982 in Glendale, a nearby city.
How Panda Express Started
A few months after the Glendale Panda Inn opened, something new happened. The people who owned the Glendale Galleria mall invited the Cherngs. They wanted them to open a faster, quick-serve version of Panda Inn inside the mall. This new idea became what we know as Panda Express. The first Panda Express opened in the Galleria in October 1983.
Other Locations and Closures
The first Panda Inn in Orange County opened in 1990. This was the sixth restaurant in the chain. A Panda Inn also opened in San Diego in 1985. However, that location closed in January 2017.
Andrew Cherng and his wife Peggy Tsiang Cherng both went to Baker University. This university is in Baldwin City, Kansas.
See also
