- Halal Guys, they were huge in New York street food
before New York was really huge into street food.
It was almost entirely an immigrant enterprise,
and it was on the street and no one had branding
and no one had a Twitter account,
and The Halal Guys did that and became stars for it.
- It grew from very humble beginnings.
One, two, three, four customers at the carts
to now massive lines everywhere in the states.
- There was this fear, will The Halal Guys
be able to survive outside of New York City,
where it's so diverse.
(upbeat music)
- If you ever went to the cart, at the corner of 53rd & 6th
in midtown, like deepest darkest midtown, like,
you know, office buildings every where
there would be a line that would stretch
literally a hundred feet.
And there would be just people waiting
for their chicken and rice, or their lamb and rice.
- The Halal Guys was started in 1990
as a hot dog stand, and it quickly evolved.
Taxi drivers gave the feedback,
that look, we want something more wholesome, more filling.
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- Gyro is ground meat that's stacked
and put onto a spit that then rotates
with heat on it that we slice into thin slices
and then cook on our griddle to finish it off.
And we serve it piping hot
in either a sandwich or on our platter.
- Our chicken is halal, it's humanely raised chicken,
it is never frozen, always fresh.
We get the chicken and marinate it between 12 to 24 hours
with our spices and then it gets cooked.
Our platter starts with the fresh lettuce and tomatoes
with basmati rice and then we add the beef gyro,
and our chicken, and the pita bread.
We have different toppings that we can add to the platter,
like green peppers and onions and jalapeño
and hummus, baba ganoush,
but what most people are gonna want
is the delicious white sauce.
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- The white sauce is just unbelievable,
nobody can replicate it.
- That damn white sauce, it is so good!
- I've seen people that come and load their platter
with white sauce where you don't see anything,
it almost looks like a white sauce soup.
I was introduced to The Halal Guys
by my brother-in-law actually, who first told me
about trying this great cart in New York City.
It was in the middle of the winter,
I stood in line for about half an hour.
I made the mistake that I didn't know
how hot the hot sauce was, so I told them
to just load it with hot sauce.
There I am sweating, my wife is there like sweating,
we took out jackets off,
it was like we even opened the windows
in almost zero degrees weather
and we're eating this food, we couldn't stop,
it was so hot but it just so delicious.
When the opportunity came along
and we found out that they are franchising,
we decided that there's no one better to do this
than big fans of The Halal Guys.
My partners are Sami and Mouhammed.
Mouhammed is my younger brother,
Sami is a long time family friend.
We opened our first store in East Brunswick in 2016.
We are looking to open 18 locations in the next 4-5 years.
- I used to come every summer early 2000
to work at the carts, I worked every position of the cart,
from grill man to serving line to prep,
to cleaning the streets, everything you can imagine.
I use to experience seeing people
from every different nationality stand in line
for a plate of food.
It was just something mind blowing for me
and as I was young, I was 16, 17 years old at that time.
- Middle Eastern food really
is just starting to gain traction
and so Halal Guys really seized that opportunity.
I love the fact that this was a way
for Middle Eastern people to share their culture,
to share their food with other people.
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- America has a really weird and complicated relationship
with Muslim people from all over the world.
To have a chain of restaurants,
that is spreading nationwide,
that people love and to have the word halal
right in the name of that restaurant,
that's saying in no uncertain terms
that we're your neighbors and we live here
just as much as you do and we love it here
just as much as you do.
And we are trying to make the most of our opportunity
just as you are.
- I was born in Saudi Arabia to Palestinian parents.
I hope for my children to be able to have the choice
that I didn't have when I grew up as an immigrant
and the struggle that we had coming here.
I'm hoping to build a better life for them,
a more stable life,
with this business and with the franchise.
- Our carts became one of New York City landmarks
and that's very cool.
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