Hooray for halal! The Halal Guys finally tore down its storefront cardboard Tuesday and brought its long-awaited Middle Eastern food to Downtown Berkeley — but only in a limited capacity, for now.
The Halal Guys in Berkeley, which is located at 2121 Center St., will only be offering delivery through the food delivery service Caviar for the first few weeks. Delivery will be available from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m and from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. A grand opening date will be announced soon, according to a Facebook post.
The popular street food chain was founded in 1990 as a food cart in New York City and has since expanded to more than 50 locations across the globe.
The Halal Guys serves American halal food, which is a combination of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean flavors. The company’s menu features Middle Eastern food including gyro meat platters, falafels and the chain’s popular “white sauce.” All food and meats are sourced and prepared according to “strict Islamic dietary guidelines for Halal,” according to the company’s website.
The Halal Guys began scoping out a potential location in Berkeley in February 2015 with the goal of being easily accessible to UC Berkeley students and faculty. The Berkeley location officially replaced the Vietnamese restaurant Le Regal in October 2015, and its opening was funded through the crowdsourcing platform EquityEats, now called inKind.
The storefront is located across the street from the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, or BAMPFA, and is a block away from campus.
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