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 in California. It's owned by the same company that runs Panda Express, called the Panda Restaurant Group. When Panda Inn first started, its goal was to introduce new kinds of Chinese food to Southern California. Before this, people in the area mostly knew about Cantonese-style Chinese food. Panda Inn wanted to share delicious Mandarin and Sichuan dishes too.
The Story of Panda Inn
The very first Panda Inn restaurant 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.
Their first restaurant opened its doors on June 8, 1973. It was located in Pasadena, California. A few years later, in 1982, a second Panda Inn opened in Glendale, a nearby city.
From Sit-Down to Fast Food
After the Glendale Panda Inn opened, something exciting happened. The Cherngs were asked to open a faster version of Panda Inn inside a shopping mall. This new idea became Panda Express. It opened in October 1983 inside the Glendale Galleria mall.
Over the years, more Panda Inn locations opened. The sixth one opened in La Palma in 1990. There was also a Panda Inn in San Diego that opened in 1985, but it closed in 2017.
Andrew Cherng and his wife Peggy Tsiang Cherng both went to Baker University in Baldwin City, Kansas.
See also
