Our Story
SHOTO | 17 North Main Street Lexington, NC 27292
In 2001 Shoto opened it's doors, a long time dream of then owners Chi and Tien Huynh. After coming to the US from war-torn Vietnam, falling in love, and starting a family in Charlotte, they chose to create a legacy here on Main Street in Lexington, passing the business on to the next generation, their sons Jimmy and Daniel, in 2008. Together with their wives Rose and Stephanie, the Huynhs work together to provide a casual full-service experience with a family centered atmosphere at the heart of Uptown Lexington.
The Beginning of Tien & Chi's Story
In the late 1950s when Tien and Chi were born, Vietnam was still recovering from the French Colonization, it was still trying to find it's own identity. That search for self governance led to the spark of conflict. Tien was born in 1954 by the sea south of Saigon and Chi was born in 1960 in a small town outside of Hanoi. By the time they were teenagers small conflicts had escalated to a war.
After the Fall of Saigon in 1975 one hundred and twenty five thousand refugees fled Vietnam and sixty two thousand more would escape on boats to Thailand by 1978. Chi and Tien arrived in Thailand in 1978 by different paths and met in the refugee camps there. Chi spent four months waiting for safety in America while Tien waited eleven months to follow her across the Pacific Ocean.
Watch the Documentary below to learn more about
their amazing journey!
Supporting Local Art
In 2025, Arts Davidson County, the local Arts Council, approached our family to request the use of our family's story as the subject of their film project. Honored, we were very excited to share the history of not only our restaurant of 25 years, but also the harrowing journey the founders, Tien and Chi Huynh, experienced leaving their home country of Vietnam and starting a brand new life in the United States and eventually Lexington, NC.
