Iowa City immigrants, lifelong friends invest in Iowa City with state’s first The Halal Guys restaurant

CORALVILLE — About 23 years after they first met in elementary school, they say it was just meant to be.

What started as a childhood friendship for Sudanese refugees Ahmed Ahmed and Siddig Siddig has become an investment into the community that raised them as one of its own.

The duo opened The Halal Guys’ Coralville location on Dec. 21.

With new Halal-certified offerings, the Mediterranean fast-casual concept’s first foray into Iowa offers a story beyond what meets the eye.

How it started

After fleeing Sudan, Ahmed’s father had two choices at the end of a work contract in the United Arab Emirates: go back to war-torn Sudan, or find another place to live and work in Europe or North America.

With plentiful opportunities in Iowa City’s tight-knit Sudanese community, that’s how Ahmed, now 31, ended up in the place he would come to call his hometown.

In 2001, the second-grader befriended Siddig Siddig, another similarly-aged Sudanese boy living on the floor above him. Together, they went through school at Weber Elementary, West High School and even the University of Iowa together.

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Ahmed became a pharmacist and remains in Iowa City; Siddig became a venture capitalist and lives in San Francisco.

But they both were looking for something new.

“I thought, am I going to be doing this for the rest of my life, every single day?” Ahmed said. “I wanted more.”

But opening a pharmacy of his own wasn’t an attractive option in an industry that has become cumbersome to operate in, with diminishing return on investment.

When he ate at The Halal Guys in Chicago, he found a new direction for his life.

“It was either pharmacies, or food. The food option might be a little more enjoyable for our community, and it brings something different,” Ahmed said.

The food

It’s like Chipotle for Mediterranean food, Siddig said. He first became acquainted with it as a popular option while working in New York City.

Pick your style: a platter or a sandwich on pita. Both are served with a seasoned rice, lettuce and tomato. Then, pick your protein: beef gyro or chicken shaved from the cone on-site, two falafel options, or spicy barbecue chicken.

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All of it is halal-certified in accordance with Islamic principals. But the food isn’t just for Muslims — 70 percent of their customers aren’t.

Halal simply prescribes a unique way of raising and slaughtering the meat, and The Halal Guys is making it more mainstream. Sick or injured animals are precluded from being used as meat, and animals are processed humanely and individually rather than en masse.

“The way animals are put down, the way the food is sourced, it’s very ethical,” Siddig said. “There’s a large Muslim community (In Iowa), but there’s a broader community interested in eating food like this.”

The franchisees wanted to offer the brand as a unique quick-service option for those who eat halal in a state where halal options, even at sit-down restaurants, are limited.

Add toppings like green peppers and onions for free, or jalapenos, olives, hummus and barbecue-spiced pita bread for an upcharge.

Top it all with sauces that add a new dimension like the creamy and savory white sauce that they’re famous for; an “explosive” hot sauce; barbecue; or the Middle Eastern tahini made from ground sesame.

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On the side, take a gander at options like fries, hummus, falafel and pita chips. For a limited time, you can get their popular chicken wings, too.

A new deal

Siddig, whose parents remain in Iowa City as he works in San Francisco, was looking for a way to reinvest meaningfully. Together with Ahmed’s brother, Hassam Karoam, and Ahmed’s wife, Asma Elmahdi, the four franchise owners struck a deal to bring The Halal Guys deeper into the Midwest with its first Iowa restaurants.

“It’s great coming back and investing in our community,” Siddig said. “I know they say don’t mix friends and business, but we’re very complementary to each other.”

Siddig and Ahmed’s agreement for five restaurants over the next five years will bring the halal-certified brand to a triangle-shaped territory stretching from the Quad Cities to Hiawatha to West Des Moines. They aim to open one restaurant per year, driven by the right real estate.

Founded in 1990, the restaurant holds claim as the only Middle Eastern fast-casual brand with more than 100 locations internationally. It is growing rapidly, with 400 more locations being planned.

The concept, which was started at a hot dog stand by three Egyptian immigrants, was popularized by word-of-mouth through Muslim cabdrivers in New York City after the owners realized the market for the same kind of halal platters they serve today.

The restaurant started opening brick-and-mortar franchises by 2014. Today, it has more than 130 franchises across the world.

“We’re immigrants. We came from literally nothing when we got to the U.S.,” Ahmed said. “To be able to do something like this, it’s very rewarding.”

Comments: Features reporter Elijah Decious can be reached at (319) 398-8340 or elijah.decious@thegazette.com.