After they spent time blogging about the foods they tried at restaurants throughout Cypress, husband-wife duo Stanley and Ashley Anemelu said they wanted to develop a new platform to showcase local cuisine, so the Cypress residents launched the LocalServes website in the summer of 2017 as a pictorial menu where local foodies could discover and review dishes from menus in their community. Unfortunately, the Anemelus hit a roadblock when Hurricane Harvey caused many of their partner restaurants to close their doors shortly after the website launched.

The Anemelus said they used this downtime to transform their website into a free mobile application for Android and Apple users.

“LocalServes helps businesses transition from traditional, wordy text menus to more visually appealing, digital, pictorial menus accessible from anywhere, giving them more exposure,” officials said.

The coronavirus pandemic has been another crisis in which the Anemelu family said they have found new ways to help restaurants in their neighborhood, such as adding new features to the app, including the ability for restaurants to note the ordering and delivery options available to customers.

While many area eateries have temporarily implemented disposable paper menu policies, the app founders said LocalServes provides an alternative that limits personal contact, is less expensive than printing paper menus, offers instant menu updates and is a resource for residents to discover new dining options.


Restaurants, food trucks and independent chefs are able to set up a free business account in the system and upload photos of their dishes themselves.

LocalServes currently partners with about 50 Cypress-area restaurants, but the Anemelus said they are looking to expand beyond the Houston suburb and ultimately operate in cities across the U.S. They also said they hope to implement in-app ordering options soon. Learn more at www.localserves.com.