The Halal Guys Coming to Seattle Courtesy of New York City

New York City’s popular franchise, The Halal Guys, has announced plans to open a Seattle brick-and-mortar location in the spring. It will be the company’s first Washington expansion.

The company was founded in 1990 by Mohamed Abouelenein, Ahmed Elsaka, and Abdelbaset Elsayed, who remade their hot dog cart into an American Halal street food concept after realizing that many Muslim cab drivers in Manhattan were looking for a place to buy meals.

The owners opened their first brick-and-mortar in New York in 2014, and in the two years since have built a wildly successful group of franchise restaurant locations around the world. The Halal Guys push shows no signs of stopping: to name a few, Los Angeles already has a number of locations with more planned for 2017, Chicago has a handful of outposts, Austin, Houston, and Dallas are seeing an influx, and Vegas recently got its first branch. Expect the same favorite food items at the Seattle location: gyro sandwiches, chicken-and-rice platters, baklava, and hummus. The company hasn’t released its exact Seattle location but Eater will update the story when more information is available.

Back in the food-cart dark ages of 1990, The Halal Guys incubated what is now one of the longest-running food cart businesses in New York. The business has drawn lines consistently and was Foursquare’s most popular food truck reviewed in 2013 and the third-most Yelped restaurant in the U.S. in 2014. The company now has more than 200 locations operating and in the works worldwide.