nothin Team Halal Guys Takes The Field | New Haven Independent

Team Halal Guys Takes The Field

Team Halal Guys huddles up before the opening.

Allan Appel Photos

The basic platter: chicken, beef gyro, rice, lettuce and tomato, pita, and the secret white sauce.

Erica Harris pronounced the famously mysterious white sauce sweet with a tang,” the gyro beef seasoned very well, not crispy, perfect,” and she noticed the chicken was shredded, a mark of freshness, so that it falls apart and is easy to eat.

Hers was the first of many yummy-to-rave reviews of the fare at the Halal Guys, Connecticut’s first and so far only outpost for the New York food truck-turned Mediterranean restaurant phenomenon.

The restaurant, which officially cut a ribbon at 906 Chapel St. right across from the Green, is the 15th establishment in the chain. It opened to the public Friday morning.

Harris was the first in a line of some 200 people aiting patiently for nearly two hours to try the chicken, beef, rice, with either the white or red sauce and, for vegetarians, the falafel. Wearing red shirts advertising their basic platter Connecticut pharmacists-turned-food entrepreneurs Jena and Jack Yeung were joined by economic development officials and a lot of eager and apparently very hungry New Haveners.

That food was served up to them by some 50 franchise employees. (Jack Yeung had said back in June when the Independent interviewed him and a then-pregnant Jena that he estimated the store would hire 30 employees.)

Since the summer the number has grown, as the store hours will be from 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and on the other days 11 a.m. to 11 p.m, he said.

Harris, the first customer, gives a tasty thumbs up.

Their baby Charlotte, the couple’s third child, is now a happy liquids-only baby. Halal Guys fare will be her first solid food,” Jena Yeung said.

As numbered yellow tickets were handed out to waiting customers — the first hundred in the line were to eat free — the line inched along as employees distributed cups of ice water and T‑shirts and other swag.

The Yeungs.

Yeung said that according to company rules, the chicken must always be fresh, never frozen, and it must be marinated for 12 hours.

Shawn Sherwin, the general manager of the 50 employees, said the chicken comes from New Jersey, where the animals are humanely treated before being slaughtered. The halal” is similar, in the manner animals are raised and slaughtered, to the Jewish kosher” designation in that regard.

If an animal is tense, not relaxed when it is slaughtered, the meat is tough, Sherwin added. Harris had noticed that the chicken on her platter was shredded and soft.

We’re not fast food. We’re great food served fast,” he said, underlining the motto of New Haven’s Halal Guys, the franchise’s 15th operation worldwide.

Brandon Leon in foreground, took Harris’s order and prepared the container.

Inside the restaurant, sandwiches and platters were being prepared by employees like Brandon Leon, of Bridgeport. He was working the beginning of the line. Behind him another employee moved the chickens along on the grill. The people moved and the chickens moved in a kind of, well, culinary line dance.

Jasmine Brown, another Bridgeporter, worked as the cashier at the end of the service counter. She stood beside the register and a ziggurat of boxes of baklava. It was she who handed Harris her free platter, along with a drink. It’s crazy working here, but that’s what makes it fun,” she said.

None of the workers are full-timers. None receive benefits, although all that is in the cards if additional stores are added to his franchise, Yeung said.

Another employee moved the sizzling chickens along.

Workers like Brown and Leon receive depending on experience, from $10 to $15 an hour. About 60 percent are from New Haven, with the balance from the Greater New Haven area.

Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce President Tony Rescigno, who has his offices above the Halal Guys, took issue with those who say such jobs — 50 of them — are not good ones. We think these are important jobs. We think many will be promoted to supervisory positions,” he said.

Wanda Perez ordered the beef gyro sandwich, of which she said she took three bites before bagging it up again. She pronounced it fresh and appealing, and she praised the friendly staff.

Brown hands Harris her bagged platter at the end of the line.

She met Jack Yeung on the way out.

I’ll be seeing you again?” he asked.

Yes,” Perez responded. And I’m a picky eater.”

Click on or upload the above sound file to listen to an earlier interview with Yeungs on WNHH radio’s Open for Business” program.

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