Davanh Phayarath-Khamsone shares her new Sriracha sauces she developed for her Cajun-inspired Asian restaurant Sticky Chix, which features fried chicken and sticky rice. Photographed Tuesday, July 28, 2026 in downtown Fresno. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA ezamora@fresnobee.com
At most restaurants, an owner’s identity shines through in some way.
That’s especially true at Sticky Chix, a new “Cajun-Asian” restaurant in downtown Fresno.
It serves Cajun-spiced fried chicken with Lao-inspired sauces and sides such as egg rolls, fried rice, garlic noodles, papaya salad and more.
Owner Davanh Phayarath-Khamsone was born in Laos, moved to Texas and Louisiana before coming to Fresno, scraping up culture and culinary know-how everywhere she went.
In late April she opened Sticky Chix on P Street, just a few blocks south of City Hall.
The little restaurant — in a trio of eateries at 744 P St. — is open from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays through Fridays serving breakfast and lunch
The logo of the Sticky Chix restaurant is a happy little chicken with a container of sticky rice. It’s a fitting image on the T-shirt of owner, who laughs easily and likes to have fun on the job.
Phayarath-Khamsone was born in Laos, and that family history is how she learned to cook Lao food. It’s what led her to create the Lao Sriracha hot sauce — her version of the popular rooster sauce.
“In our culture, Lao people, we just love sauces,” she said.
Those Lao roots run deep.
When she was a 6-month-old baby, her family snuck her across the Mekong River to escape the Vietnam War.
It’s a story that many Southeast Asian immigrants in Fresno share. Tens of thousands of Lao and Hmong people died trying to escape war in that river crossing.
After several years in a refugee camp in Thailand, Phayarath-Khamsone’s family moved to Texas, then Louisiana.
The men followed the welding jobs, her uncles and brothers working with oil-drilling rigs. The family landed in a one-stoplight town.
“I’m from the country, alligators and all,” she said. “I actually had a real bayou down the street.”
Her dad shucked oysters for a living.
Occasionally, he’d roll up in his “Scooby Doo van” and any kid who wanted to work for spending money would jump in. They’d peel crawfish that was later sold in stores.
Later on, they’d pick peppers.
Southern Louisiana, where she grew up, is thick with Cajun culture. She learned how cook with the spices: oregano, cayenne, paprika, black pepper and thyme.
No stranger to hard work, Phayarath-Khamsone would get a job in Texas for Mercedes’ version of OnStar, where she was the voice on the other end of the line during emergencies. In Las Vegas, she was a cocktail server at Mandalay Bay casino.
She moved to Fresno at a friend’s urging and spent 11 years dealing blackjack and poker at Club One Casino.
She met her husband, Nith Khamsone, at his going-away party. He was leaving for Los Angeles, but he came back. And good thing, since they fell in love, got married and now Fresno is home.
Lao Sriracha
She had been talking about opening a restaurant all this time, but that’s not what drives her.
It’s the sauces.
“I wanted a hot sauce for Laos people,” she said. “Laos people, we like the umami flavor; we like it savory.”
So she created a Lao Sriracha sauce. It’s a hot sauce that’s a take on the popular Huy Fong Sriracha. Only, it’s got a deep, savory flavor.
There’s also a ginger Sriracha that’s less spicy.
You can buy bottles at the restaurant. They’re also for sale at R-N Market at Herndon and Cedar avenues, Asia Supermarket on Tulare Avenue and TBL Asian Market on Clovis Avenue. Amazon sells them for $11.95.
“They sell pretty good,” said Doug Gong, general manager at R-N Market.
Most people put it on soups, or noodles, or anywhere they’d use hot sauce, he said.
Gong said he was intrigued by the sauce because it was local and from a woman-owned food company, something he doesn’t see very often.
“It’s an alternative to Sriracha, which is a pretty popular hot sauce nowadays,” he said.
Satay Thai Kitchen & Bar at Chestnut and Shepherd avenues also uses it.
“The flavors just pair very well with our dishes,” said owner David Rasavong.
He’s seen customers put it on anything, including noodles, stir fries — even curries.
Usually, they serve it in small dishes.
“If we know it’s a regular who likes a lot of it — here’s the bottle,” he said.
Phayarath-Khamsone hopes the sauces eventually make it on the shelves of Costco and Walmart. Sales at the restaurant help fund that effort.
“Now I just want to people to try it,” she said. “I want everyone to try it.”
Davanh Phayarath-Khamsone shares her Sriracha sauces at her Cajun-inspired Asian restaurant Sticky Chix Tuesday, July 28, 2026 in downtown Fresno. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA ezamora@fresnobee.com 
Davanh Phayarath-Khamsone fills a to-go box with garlic noodles from her new Cajun-inspired Asian restaurant Sticky Chix Tuesday, July 28, 2026 in downtown Fresno. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA ezamora@fresnobee.com 
Davanh Phayarath-Khamsone says the fried chicken at her new Cajun-inspired Asian restaurant Sticky Chix has been very popular, as she dips a piece into one of her two Sriracha sauces Tuesday, July 28, 2026 in downtown Fresno. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA ezamora@fresnobee.com 
Davanh Phayarath-Khamsone’s new Sticky Chix Cajun Asian restaurant offers fried chicken and sticky rice in downtown Fresno, photographed Tuesday, July 28, 2026. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA ezamora@fresnobee.com
This story was originally published July 30, 2026 at 11:56 AM.
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Bethany Clough covers restaurants and retail for The Fresno Bee. A reporter for more than 20 years, she now works to answer readers’ questions about business openings, closings and other business news. She has a degree in journalism from Syracuse University and her last name is pronounced Cluff.