Tiffany and Leo Ponce have Chinese food to thank for their introduction they said.

The Ponces, who have been married almost 18 years, met when they were both working at Peking Palace, a Round Rock Chinese restaurant, in 1997. Tiffany, a military dependent living at Fort Hood, was a waitress, and Leo was working as the chef.

Leo moved to the United States from Querétaro, Mexico, in 1994 and got his start in the restaurant industry shortly after.

“[Leo] started working as a dishwasher in a Chinese restaurant when he was a teenager and then just eventually learned how to cook,” Tiffany said.

The couple opened Shanghai Express in October 2002 with the hope of bringing an authentic and family-oriented Chinese restaurant to Georgetown.

“[Leo] just decided to save and save and save [his money]and do this for himself,” Tiffany said.

However, it is not just Tiffany and Leo that make Shanghai a family-run business. Four other members of the family work there as well, she said.

Shanghai has 15 employees, including two of Leo’s brothers who serve as chefs, and a cousin who works as the deep fryer. Tiffany and Leo’s 17-year-old son Devon waits tables at the restaurant, she said.

Although the Ponces are not currently planning an expansion, one of Leo’s brothers opened a Shanghai Express in Mexico in 2005, Tiffany said.

With Shanghai being one of the few locally owned Chinese restaurants in town, Tiffany said the restaurant mostly serves regulars.

“We know most of our customers by name,” Tiffany said.

Shanghai Express offers a lunch buffet on Sundays that features menu items not offered on other days.[/caption]

On Sundays, Shanghai serves a lunch buffet that includes original menu items not offered on other days, such as jalapeno chicken, sauteed green beans and shrimp cocktail.

“Leo makes all of the sauces for the restaurant, and the recipes are his,” Tiffany said.

Leo and Tiffany said the Crispy Sesame Chicken is probably the restaurant’s most popular menu item, but they often recommend the Mongolian Beef.

For the Ponces, Georgetown’s small-town atmosphere provided the ideal place to open a family-run restaurant, Tiffany said.

“I love that even though it’s grown a lot, it still seems like a small town,” Tiffany said. “Another thing that drew us to Georgetown is that they are more local-centric.”