PORTAGE, MI — You can’t miss Chinese-American restaurant Joy Fong when driving down Portage Road.

The restaurant’s green roof, orange paneling and ornate red doors stand out from the other businesses on the quiet lakefront business strip.

Joy Fong is a Portage go-to for Chinese-American staples like orange chicken, General Tso’s chicken and lo mein.

Behind the red doors is a 44-year history, starting in December 1980 when current owner Ted Leung’s father immigrated to the United States from China.

“My father lived here alone,” said Ted Leung, 68. “In China, when we (were) young kids, the economy was not very strong compared with the United States.”

Leung‘s father first opened a restaurant in Adrian, but the workload was too much without his family, Leung said.

When Ted Leung, his siblings and his mother immigrated, the family moved to Portage and his father opened Joy Fong.

”If no restaurant, my brother (would have to) work some place, my sister another place and I work another place, so it’s too hard to gather,” Leung said.

Ted Leung took over the restaurant with his wife Nancy Leung, 62, after his father died in the 2000s.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, the Leungs decided to keep the restaurant’s dining room closed to save money. A lot of their business was already carryout, said Hillary Leung, who is Ted and Nancy Leung’s daughter. They saved money by not having to hire more staff, Nancy Leung said.

Joy Fong serves meals extra hot, so they’ll stay warm as customers drive home. Each order also comes with handmade dinner rolls.

“Growing up, that was always fun to make,” said Hillary Leung, 23. “It would just be a late night thing we would do before closing the restaurant down.”

All sauces are made in house, Ted Leung said.

Inside the kitchen, Ted Leung keeps his brown sauce for chicken and broccoli in a repurposed Taylor Swift “Era’s Tour” popcorn container (Hillary Leung bought the container when she saw the film in theatres).

The orange sauce is in a Dean’s ice cream tub next to the stove.

Ted Leung steams the vegetables, kept in nearby buffet-style cold storage containers, in boiling water and then adds the pre-cooked chicken and sauce.

Some of the dishes served are those the family used to eat in China.

The restaurant is adding new authentic Chinese dishes like an egg foo yong burger and steamed egg custard, Nancy Leung said. The Leungs try to keep their prices low, they said. Most meals are less than $20.

As for the next generation of Joy Fong, none of the Leung children want to go into the restaurant business. Ted Leung said they have a few years left in them before they retire.

Until then, Joy Fong is going strong.

Like other businesses on the Portage Road corridor, Joy Fong felt the pinch of a three-year construction project at the nearby I-94 and Portage Road interchange. But most of their customers come through word of mouth or have been eating there for years, Ted Leung said.

They’ve never had to pay for advertising, Nancy Leung said. But every so often, they do have to turn down customer requests to re-open the dining room.

Hillary Leung said she’ll see customers who remember her running around the dining room as a little girl.

“When we meet (customers), they say, ‘Oh, we are three generations staying with your restaurant. The kids grew up with Joy Fong,’ Ted Leung said. “We are so happy for that.”

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