Joy Fong's Dining Room Is Open Again, Under New Owners. What Else Is Changing on South Portage Road This Fall

For most of the last few years, a meal from 8136 Portage Road meant takeout. Joy Fong closed its dining area during the pandemic and never reopened it. Then on July 15 the restaurant closed for good after 46 years. Ten weeks later, someone else had the lights back on and was seating customers again. Add the trail crews south of East Milham and a brewery calendar that runs most of the way to Thanksgiving, and this stretch of Portage Road is giving people more reasons to stop this fall.

The 46 years behind the sign

Joy Fong opened in 1980. Man Yuk Leung started it, and Ted and Nancy Leung took it over in the 2000s, MLive reported (subscription required) on the restaurant's last day. The Leungs said in June that they were closing to retire, according to MLive. By the final day on Wednesday, July 15, they had a basket full of thank-you cards, plus notes customers had written on their bills, and patrons came in that day to share memories of the family restaurant.

What opened at 8136 on September 21

New JoyFong Modern Cuisine opened on Monday, September 21, about two months after the old restaurant closed, MLive reported on October 1. The name sounds familiar, but the restaurant is new. Mingyang Fang and Aixia Wu own it, the recipes are their own, and they bought the property this summer.

The name link is partly coincidence. "Fong" is a family surname for the new owners. "In Chinese culture, fate carries a profound meaning and using our family surname for the restaurant feels like a special stroke of fate for us," Fang told MLive through a translation tool.

The dining room is the change you'll see first. The couple spent two straight months renovating before opening for dine-in, and they plan more renovations over the next year. Fang and Wu have opened Chinese restaurants in Arizona and Maryland since arriving in the U.S. in 2013. Before that, they worked in Japan and South Korea.

"Food is the lifelong dream my wife and I have pursued for more than 20 years," Fang said in the same MLive story.

What to order on a first visit

Here's what the menu offers, based on MLive's account from the restaurant's second week:

• Scallion bubble pancake. It's cooked at high heat until it puffs into a hollow ball. Fang calls it "our signature feature," and MLive reported it has been a popular appetizer since opening day.
• Mixed vegetable white sauce with chicken, $16. MLive called it the crowd favorite so far.
• General Tso's, sesame and orange chicken, $16. The menu lists these as its "trending food," and meals come with rice.
• "Taste of Grandma." This section of the menu stands for the owners' "longing for our loved ones while far from home and our passion for the culinary arts."

Fang and Wu run the kitchen themselves and can adjust for how much spice you want or for gluten sensitivity. Wu said everything is sliced fresh and stir-fried to order. If you need a dish changed, ask when you order.

The trail crews just north of dinner

If you've driven Portage Road since October 12, you've hit the cones. That day the City of Portage started building a trail extension and sidewalk improvements between East Milham Avenue and Fairfield Road, according to the city's October 9 release. Here's what the city has announced:

• Phase one extends the trail from East Milham Avenue to Yellow Brick Road.
• Sidewalk improvements run from Winters Drive to Fairfield Road.
• The southbound curb lane on Portage Road is closed while crews work.
• Completion is scheduled for Sunday, November 15, if the weather cooperates.

A second notice, posted October 16, scheduled final paving on the east side of Portage Road for Saturday, October 17, with a northbound detour starting at 5 a.m. along Osterhout Avenue, Oakland Drive, Shaver Road and Centre Avenue. Neither notice gives a new completion date, so the November 15 target for the trail and sidewalk work still stands.

Here's what this means between now and November 15. The curb lane you'd normally use to turn into a business on the southbound side is the one that's closed. Leave a few extra minutes if you're heading to dinner at 8136 or a Thursday trivia start around 6:30 p.m. The city's Department of Transportation & Utilities takes questions at (269) 329-4422, Monday through Thursday from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Friday from 8 a.m. to noon.

Once the work is done, there will be trail and sidewalk along a road that people mostly drive through. It fits with the parks-and-trails Portage we covered in Portage Living Near Parks And Trails.

A block up, a calendar through mid-November

Presidential Brewing sits at 8302 Portage Road, a short drive from New JoyFong. Its events page lists something most weeks through mid-November, and most of it is free. The brewery's first Baracktoberfest was set for October 17, and MLive reported that it would pair a Märzen Van Buren release with bratwurst specials from Barrett's Smokehouse.

Coming up:

Some details from the individual event pages: SCARYOKE promises prizes and a $1 first draft if you come in costume. The November 8 release is an American light lager, with $35 mini-kegs and a camo giveaway. The brewery's calendar also lists trivia on November 19. The trivia nights and the euchre tournament take tickets through the brewery's site, and some trivia nights were close to full a week out, so reserve early if your team has a regular night.

One evening on the stretch, start to finish

All three changes fit into a single evening, and October 24 works well. Eat early at New JoyFong, order the scallion bubble pancake for the table, then head up to 8302 for costume karaoke at 8 p.m. If you're driving south, allow a little extra time for the lane closure. After November 15, the city expects that segment of trail and sidewalk to be finished, and getting between the restaurant and the brewery should be easier than it has been all fall.

If you'd rather go on a weeknight, Thursdays line up well: dinner at New JoyFong, then trivia up the road at 6:30. For more on what's happening around town this season, our post on Portage's fall after the Celery Flats Friday nights covers the parks side of the calendar, and our Portage neighborhood page covers the rest of the city.

At Rodriguez Homes, we pay attention to the details that change how a street gets used, like a dining room reopening or a sidewalk going in. Those details matter when a home near south Portage Road goes on the market. If you live along this corridor and want to know how this fall's changes affect what your home is worth, start with our instant home valuation.