The Chin family roots lay deep in the old 1920’s Chinatown of Detroit. This is where Jin Chin owned and operated many of the typical immigrant businesses, such as Chinese laundries and grocery stores. The grocery store, “Wah Lee,” was known by the local Chinese restaurants to sell many of the foreign ingredients needed but not found at American grocery markets. Here, Jin found his knowledge in food service and products.

After widowing twice, Jin returned to Canton, China where he met and married his third wife, Mon. At age 50, Jin and Mon returned back to Detroit to pursue a bigger dream, starting a family and owning their own Chinese restaurant.

In 1969, Mon came across a restaurant for sale called Chateau Gay on the corner of Maple Road and Stephenson Highway in Troy, which at that time was mostly farmland and dirt roads. Instantly falling in love with its Asian fan shaped walls and pagoda-like architecture, Mon and Jin purchased the restaurant, and renamed it – Mon Jin Lau. Not only did they name their restaurant after themselves and add the word “Lau” which means house, it had a double meaning, “House of Ten Thousand Jewels”.