Who Owns Pick Up Stix?

Charlie Zhang founded Pick Up Stix in 1989 in Rancho Santa Margarita, California. Zhang immigrated to the United States from China in 1982 and adapted traditional Chinese cooking to American tastes, cutting oil and building sauces around wine, vinegar, and soy. The first restaurant established the open-kitchen format where guests watch wok chefs cook dishes to order.

By 1992 the chain had added locations in Irvine and Laguna Niguel, and by 1994 it expanded into San Diego County. Growth through the 1990s made Pick Up Stix a fixture of Southern California strip centers.

Carlson Restaurants Worldwide, a unit of the Carlson Companies hospitality group that also owned TGI Fridays, acquired Pick Up Stix in July 2001. Zhang stayed on as president and CEO until retiring in 2003.

In 2010, Carlson sold the chain to Lorne Goldberg's Mandarin Holdings, which also owned Leeann Chin. Under Goldberg, the company consolidated to its core Southern California market, maintained a catering and school lunch business, and added licensed units in airports and Las Vegas casino resorts including Excalibur, MGM Grand, and Circus Circus.

As of 2026, Pick Up Stix operates more than 70 restaurants, remains headquartered in Laguna Hills, and runs its own food-processing facility that supplies sauces and prepared ingredients to the chain.