The End of the Line

COVID-19 has forced the restaurant industry to rethink everything. No brand has seen a more dramatic shift than The Halal Guys, a food cart turned franchise where long lines and busy stores were part of the appeal. So how do you transform a hot spot into a safe, reliable meal?

- CLINT CARTER

Patrick Mock used to fly across the country with takeout containers of chicken and gyro. “I’d smell up the whole cabin just so I could bring some platters back for my friends and family in California,” he says.

He was picking up those platters at The Halal Guys, a food cart on the corner of 53rd Street and Sixth Avenue in Manhattan. Mock ate there regularly when he lived in New York and worked as a management consultant. Then he moved to California, and the cart became a rare treat. Whenever he was back in town, he’d visit the cart, put in a big order, and stuff it all into a carry-on bag before heading to the airport.

Mock’s friends, many of whom he had personally introduced to the brand, knew he was a Halal Guys devotee. So in 2014, when news broke that the business was franchising, they started texting him messages of encouragement. “I was in a meeting, and I started getting pinged on my phone,” he says. “It had never even crossed my mind to do a franchise.”

But The Halal Guys wasn’t a typical company, and it wouldn’t be a typical franchise. To start, Mock was hardly the only person obsessed with it. The cart had become a beacon of culinary indulgence for street-cultured travelers and locals. It was dependable— closing only twice in its 30-year history—and wildly popular, especially at night, when people were spilling out of bars and clubs. The line was regularly down the block.