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The Halal Guys, the mega-popular New York City-based Middle Eastern food cart-restaurant chain, has closed its only Austin location found up in the north campus area. A sign appeared on the door of the 2915 Guadalupe Street restaurant last weekend, according to an Eater tipster, which said it was “permanently closed.” The north campus location doesn’t appear on Halal Guys’ official website anymore and the phone number doesn’t work.
At the time of this article’s original publishing date on Thursday, October 25, a corporate rep for Halal Guys wasn’t aware of the shutter. According to the records during that morning, the Austin location was supposed to be still open. Something similar happened to one of the locations in New Orleans last month too.
Since then, an outside representative for Halal Guys confirmed that the Austin restaurant is indeed closed. According to the statement, that there are no further plans to open any restaurants in the city:
We’ve enjoyed serving the Austin community over the past year, but have recently closed our Austin area restaurant. As The Halal Guys continues to expand worldwide, we have learned with the help of analysis and market methodologies to identify successful trade areas and real estate for restaurant development. After careful consideration, the Austin location does not meet that criteria at this time. Thank you to all our local patrons in Austin who shared in our love for platters and hot sauce. Be on the lookout for more Texas locations coming soon.
The growing global chain opened the first Austin location in July 2017, after announcing its intentions to open in the Texas capital in 2016. It took over what had been the home of I Luv Video on Guadalupe.
Halal Guys started in the 1990s by founders Mohammed Abouelenein, Abdelbaset Elsayed, and Ahmed Elsaka, and grew with franchised locations across the world. Its locations in Houston and Dallas remain open.
This article has been updated to include information from Halal Guys’ representatives about the Austin shutter.
