Indeed, food has
a way of bridging the cultural, religious and political differences people
have. Take for example the CNN show - Parts Unknown. What an epic idea ! What I love most
about Anthony Bourdain's segment in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza is how he
concentrates on the rich history, food and culture of this region - rather than
focusing on the differences between the Jews, Muslims and Christians and the
Israelis and Arabs. He spends much of his time appreciating the local foods of
the region and highlighting the similarities and commonalities of traditional
recipes of Israelis and Palestinians. He does this within th backdrop of the
ongoing conflict and war in the region. He uses food as a mechanism and way for
Israelis and Palestinians to vocalize and contrast their different narratives,
history, experiences and cultures. He pre-empted
the criticism he would get for his show. Anthony Bourdain began this edition of
Parts Unknown by saying, “By the end of this hour, I’ll be seen by many as a
terrorist sympathizer, a Zionist tool, a self-hating Jew, an apologist for
American imperialism, an Orientalist, socialist, a fascist, CIA agent, and
worse.” He was correct -
the backlash from this episode was heard all across the globe and the internet.
IN fact his episode was delayed due to the controversy surrounding this
episode. He was criticised for just about everything: many questioned his
political leaning - some going as far as calling him a disappointing Jew, a
supporter of Hammas and a Palestinian sympathizer. Others criticized him for
falling flat and failing to address the significant political and economic
issues and inequalities of the region in a meaningful way. Many have said that
he portrayed a romanticised vision of what he perceives as the ongoing conflict
between the Jews, Christians and Muslims and the Palestinians and Israelis.
While others, have said there was not enough discussion on food as a whole.
It’s true, he
did fall short of what was expected from him - at least as far as my
expectations go. For whatever reason (and we can think of many I am sure), he
did not take as many risks, voice his mind, “not give a f***”,volunteer this
opinion and commentary or question his surrounds as he usually does and is famously
known to do.His snaky and opinionated attitude
has turned off many over the years. Yet, in this episode he was tame, apolitical,
unlike his regular snotty self and way too politically correct - barf.
Whatever the
criticism - he is given props for trying to steer a very politically charged
discussion away from the traditional us vs. them, Muslims vs. Arabs, Zionism
vs. Occupation reports that we read about on a daily basis - to something
meaningful that we can digest and relate to - FOOD! Yes people it is that simple
and Bourdain took it there. I like the fact that he simplified the multilayer discourse
of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and rebranded and packaged it in a way that
consumers such as myself can appreciate, absorb and take a new found interest in
the discussion.
He even provides his viewers with a take home massage (which I agree is a bit wet) that left me feeling all fuzzy and warm inside! Bourdain closes
the segment by highlighting the following: “when you see
how similar they are, the two people, both of whom cook with pride, eat with
passion, love their kids, love the land in which they live or the land they
dream of returning to … that they might someday, somehow figure out how to live
with each other. But that would be very mushy thinking indeed. Those things in
the end probably don’t count for much at all.”
If you have not seen the episode – take an
hour and watch it. I am confident you too will have something to say.
In the luxe dining room of Del Posto, one of New York’s most heralded and expensive Italian restaurants, one-third of the tables on any given night will have at least one gluten-free diner.
Mark Ladner, the restaurant’s chef and widely considered to be one of the best pasta cooks in the nation, knows it is a remarkable number. Gluten, the protein in wheat that gives dough its elasticity, has been a key ingredient in his culinary success. But Mr. Ladner also knows gluten-free dining remains a big and growing business, so he offers each of his pasta dishes, down to his 100-layer lasagna, in gluten-free form.
Similar gluten-free dishes, like pasta made with rice and corn starches and chewy focaccia, are woven into the menus at all the restaurants owned by Del Posto’s proprietors, Mario Batali, Joe Bastianich and Lidia Bastianich, Mr. Bastianich’s mother. “It really has become a thing, and I don’t think it’s going to go away anytime soon,” Mr. Ladner said.
A decade ago, few people other than those with celiac disease, a digestive condition, knew much about the health implications of gluten. But today, if you aren’t gluten-free, you likely know someone who is or is trying to be. The style of eating has become a way of life for many and a national punch line for others. More than a quarter of Americans say they are cutting down on gluten or eliminating it entirely. Optimistic researchers predict the market for gluten-free products will hit $15.6 billion by 2016. The Food and Drug Administration has noted the diet trend as well, and passed new labeling laws for gluten-free products to take effect in August.
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Gluten-free dishes that were served at Felidia restaurant in New York: from left, buckwheat tagliatelle with spring onion, bacon and tomato sauce, and a dish of chickpea flour pappardelle with fresh chickpeas, shrimp and basil pesto.Credit Brian Harkin for The New York Times
Diet fads come and go. But observers of nutrition and eating trends in the United States say this food regimen is likely to last longer and have more impact because it comes at a time when food allergies, digestive health, genetic modification of grain and other concerns about the American diet are at an all-time high and food itself is the current cultural currency. Gluten-free eating addresses it all.
“We are in this period of cacophony with food, where people are more engaged and more confused,” said Amy Bentley, an associate professor in the department of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University. “It’s touching on very complicated issues in the food system right now.”
The number of people for whom eliminating gluten is a medical necessity is small. About 1 percent of the population has been found to have celiac disease, a disorder in which gluten — a protein in barley, rye and wheat — can damage the small intestine. Another 6 percent of the population is more broadly classified as gluten intolerant.
But the diet itself is used by people who want to lose weight, reduce inflammation, curb fatigue and ease other conditions, or because it helps them avoid highly processed grain. Many simply say they feel better without it, though there is not yet much scientific evidence to back up the claims.
For chefs, gluten-free eating could change forever the role of grains in the kitchen just as the French nouvelle cuisine movement led to lighter, simpler dishes that considered the health of the diner as well as the taste of the raw ingredients.
“I think that every big food tsunami that comes along, it leaves the ripples of an aftereffect, which is good,” said Lidia Bastianich, who offers gluten-free pasta and bread at her New York restaurant Felidia. “There’s a reality out there of all these allergies. Our bodies are reacting to something in how we eat.”
But the trend does make for challenging dinner parties. As a character in a recent New Yorker cartoon said, “I’ve only been gluten-free for a week, but I’m already really annoying.”
The late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel, who said he suspected that some people don’t eat gluten because someone in their yoga class told them not to, spoofed the diet by filming health conscious, gluten-free Southern Californians who were stumped when asked to describe what gluten is. The video has been viewed more than 2.5 million times on YouTube.
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Gluten-free pasta in two forms: buckwheat tagliatelle and chickpea flour pappardelle.Credit Brian Harkin for The New York Times
“A lot of what is happening is so antagonistic because it seems so trendy,” said Janet Page-Reeves, a cultural anthropologist at the University of New Mexico whose research into the social implications of gluten intolerance and food allergies will be published in a coming issue of the journal Food Culture and Society.
From a marketing angle, avoiding gluten is on track to become more widespread than the low-carbohydrate diet, championed by Dr. Robert Atkins, and its less-restrictive sister, the South Beach Diet.
The low-carb trend, which at one point had McDonald’s considering a bunless burger, peaked in 2004 as a $2.7 billion business in the United States. Market researchers put the number of people on it at that time between 9 and 18 percent.
The gluten-free business could reach at least $6.6 billion by 2017, according to an estimate by the research company Packaged Facts. About 28 percent of adults say they are interested in cutting down or avoiding gluten completely, according to tracking numbers from the NPD Group, which monitors American diet trends.
Sandy Altizer, 37, a registered dietitian with celiac disease who runs a support group at a children’s hospital in Knoxville, Tenn., helped organize the Gluten-Free Vendor Fair, a food festival, at the end of May that drew more than 1,100 people.
Some were celiac sufferers or had been diagnosed with gluten intolerance. Others were people who simply find that eating less gluten makes them feel healthier.
“Food is really my medicine,” said Ms. Altizer, who says the glut of gluten-free humor make her more sad than angry.
Despite the jokes, there is an upside to her diet’s place in popular culture. “All of the celebrities and these people on a gluten-free diet without a medical necessity are prompting food companies to make better products for me to eat,” she said.
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People stand in line for samples at the Gluten-Free Vendor Fair at the Knoxville Expo Center, which was sponsored by Celi-ACT, a support group for people affected by celiac disease and gluten intolerance.Credit Shawn Poynter for The New York Times
Mr. Ladner did not set out to become a champion of haute gluten-free cooking. “Over the last maybe three or four years, most of my creative energy has been going to mitigating dietary restrictions,” he said. “We just decided to embrace it. It was a philosophical change that really, really changed our world in a wonderful way.”
He says the diet is prompting many of his fellow chefs to explore new grains and cooking techniques. Mr. Ladner himself is so sure of the longevity of limiting gluten that he plans a chain of quick-service restaurants called Pasta Flyer where bowls of gluten-free pasta will be the stars.
The attention to grain and gluten at the highest levels of gastronomy shows a merging of two main thrusts of American eating: one based on health and the environment and another that celebrates pleasure and deliciousness, Mr. Ladner and others say.
To be sure, shunning gluten remains a narrow pursuit in the vast food landscape. Artisan breads and bagels have never been more popular, and there is a deep vein of gluten lovers who are willing to stand in line for Cronuts and pursue with singular focus the very best pizza. And it is not an easy or necessarily inexpensive diet to pursue, which adds an air of elitism.
A gluten-free diet is also unpopular for unexpected reasons. Some Christians question it in light of the many biblical references to grain. In certain immigrant communities, eating the same, traditional food is a way of keeping the culture intact. Rejecting a roti or a flour tortilla can mean feeling like an outcast.
In other circles, eating gluten-free is dismissed outright as a trend for the rich, the white and the political left. “There are people who could probably benefit from going gluten-free but won’t because they see it as those crazy lefties who are gluten-free,” Ms. Page-Reeves said.
Some who have watched food trends come and go for decades predict gluten-free will fade as fast as the low-fat SnackWell’s cookie.
“Anything that cuts out huge amounts of calories is attractive to us, and as long as people continue to think they feel better or their kids are behaving better, they’ll continue to do it,” said Marion Nestle, a professor at N.Y.U. who has written several books on the nation’s food supply.
“There really isn’t much better dietary advice than eating your veggies, exercising and limiting calories,” she said. “People just seem to like making eating difficult for themselves.”
Time to explore dry German rieslings.Credit Tony Cenicola/The New York Times
Wine School, a monthly column, invites you to drink wine with Eric Asimov. In each installment, Mr. Asimov chooses a type of wine for you to try at home. After a month, Mr. Asimov posts his reaction to the wine and addresses readers’ thoughts and questions. The last installment of Wine School featured Sancerre. This month’s wine selection: Riesling.
This month we leave France for Germany and for riesling. Like sauvignon blanc, riesling is produced all over the world. But just as an understanding of sauvignon blanc must begin in the Loire Valley, an examination of riesling starts with Germany.
Not that we don’t have many options. Wonderful, distinctive examples of riesling come from Alsace and from Austria. I’ve had great rieslings from Napa Valley and the Finger Lakes, from Australia and New Zealand, from Michigan and Ontario.
I love the German style of sweet riesling. These wines are so carefully calibrated that the best are thoroughly refreshing no matter how sweet. They are low in alcohol, beautifully reflect their places of origin, and are unlike any other rieslings. Yet the dry German rieslings can be superb and distinctive as well. Since the nomenclature surrounding the sweet styles is so complex and convoluted, we’ll focus first on dry rieslings.
Here are the three German rieslings that I suggest you find:
Dr. Bürklin-Wolf Pfalz Bürklin Estate Dry Riesling 2012 (Europvin U.S.A., Van Nuys, Calif.) $18.
Leitz Rheingau Riesling Trocken Eins Zwei Dry 2012 (Terry Theise Estate Selection/Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, N.Y.) $17.
Each of these producers makes many different wines, so take care in selecting these bottles. They may be hard to find. Though it is often a good sign when wines are made in small quantities, it’s also frustrating for consumers.
Riesling is among the most versatile wines with food and should go well with seafood, chicken and cheeses. These wines are also good with Chinese dishes that are not too hot, Japanese food and even Indian food, again, as long as it isn’t too hot.
As with most good white wines, try not to serve them icy cold. A rule of thumb is 30 minutes out of the fridge before drinking. Lightly chilled is what you’re after. And while you are drinking them, consider these three questions:
Does the wine taste and smell like fruit? Or something else? If something else, how would you describe it? German rieslings often offer great examples of “minerality.” Does that strike you as a fair description?
Minerality is often as much about texture as it is flavor. How does the wine feel in your mouth, and can you still feel it after you’ve swallowed the wine? How does it go with the food?
If you care to, compare these German rieslings with examples from elsewhere and see if you can describe how they differ.
Owner and Chef: Vittorio Colacitti, fourth-place finisher on the latest season of Top Chef Canada
The Food: Inspired by Lorenzo Loseto, executive chef at George Restaurant and an early mentor of Colacitti’s, the Top Chef Canada alum refers to his style of cooking as “Toronto” cuisine. By that, he means food that borrows from different cultural cuisines, but isn’t just fusion for fusion’s sake. The menu certainly reflects an eclectic mix of cultural influences, including French (steak tartare), Japanese (hamachi crudo), Jamaican (jerk shrimp) and Italian (wood-fired pizzas). There’s also a 32-ounce steak topped with a whole lobster.
The Drinks: Cocktails are a big focus here, but there’s also a good variety of wine (mainly European and Canadian bottles) and beer. The drinks list will expand in a month or two when Colacitti opens Wayward, a New Orleans–style speakeasy that will be housed in the space above the restaurant.
The Place: Colacitti wanted the place feel warm and inviting, and it does. It looks a bit like an old-fashioned drawing room—one that belongs to a very neat but compulsive hoarder. The walls are plastered with old photos, mirrors, antique clocks (12 on one wall) and porcelain plates (we counted 56). There’s an open kitchen at the back, and a big communal table lined with mismatched wooden chairs.
Clockwise from top left: the outside of Al Timon; a display at Laboratorio 2729; the Chiesa di San Sebastiano in Dorsoduro; Suso Gelatoteca; and the boutique Madera.Credit Cristiano Bendinelli for The New York Times
As frustrating as it is fascinating, Venice is not an easy city to get to know. Getting lost is a given. The crowds can be beastly. And yes, the whole place is sinking — literally under rising sea levels, and figuratively beneath the weight of day-tripping tourists. But these obstacles have not hindered this beguiling city from establishing itself over the past decade as the pre-eminent place in Italy for contemporary art. More recently, a wave of high-end hotels has opened along the Grand Canal, and back alleys have been set abuzz with new nightspots and a revived restaurant scene. So leave the famous sights to the crowds and instead drink up the less overt charms of this watery wonderland.
FRIDAY
1.Palace Arts | 3:30 p.m.
Bummed there’s no Biennale this year? Don’t be. Contemporary art abounds in Venice’s ancient palazzi, many of which now house museum-quality collections. One worth visiting is Palazzo Fortuny, an oft-overlooked Gothic palace tucked away on a quiet campo that was once home to the designer Mariano Fortuny. The second floor still houses Fortuny’s fine fabrics and family portraits but also contemporary works like a light installation by James Turrell. The current temporary exhibitions celebrate female artists, from the photographs of Diane Arbus and Dora Maar to illusory works by Anne-Karin Furunes in the sunny top-floor studio (through July 14; admission 10 euros, or about $13 at $1.33 to the euro).
2.True Gritti | 5 p.m.
Dress up for drinks at a Doge’s former residence, the Gritti Palace, now a supremely elegant hotel that reopened last year after a 35-million-euro renovation. Patrician details abound in the pristine lobby, from abundant floral displays and glittering chandeliers to a plush library displaying an exclusive collection of treasures selected by the well-traveled designer and actor Waris Ahluwalia. But the reason to visit at cocktail hour is Bar Longhi, a favored haunt of Ernest Hemingway where that most Venetian of aperitifs — the Aperol spritz — is served on the terrace with front-row views of the Grand Canal and the beautiful domed Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute beyond.
Cultural preservation extends beyond art and architecture inside the Chiesa di San Giovanni Evangelista, an unassuming church in San Polo. In March 2013, beneath the church’s lovely frescoes, the Venice Music Project inaugurated a Baroque music series, reviving a style integral to the Venetian Republic in the 17th and 18th centuries. This year, visiting groups and the resident orchestra, the Venetia Antiqua Ensemble, will perform works by Handel and Hasse, as well as the Venetian composers Albinoni and Vivaldi (20 euros).
4.Dream Dinner | 9:30 p.m.
Want to feel as if you’re at a private dinner party deep in the Castello district? Snag one of the 16 seats at CoVino, a convivial restaurant that opened last year. Your hosts for the evening will be Dimitri, the chef, and Andrea, who handles everything from serving and suggesting wine pairings to tempting lingering guests with slivers of sublime chocolate cake. There are few choices on the market-driven menu, but also no misses (three courses, 36 euros). Recent highlights included saffron-scented risotto cooked in grape must with a dusting of “Red Cow” Parmigiano-Reggiano, and pan-seared mullet atop stewed pumpkin purée and endive. After dinner, glide home on a vaporetto to admire romantic Venice at its most enchanting: at night, from the water.
SATURDAY
5.Saving Venice | 10:30 a.m.
In December, the recently restored masterwork “Martyrdom of St. Lawrence,” an altarpiece by the 16th-century Venetian artist Titian, returned home to Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta, the church known as I Gesuiti. View it and the exquisite marble altar inside the church, whose interior underwent restorations sponsored by Save Venice, an organization that has helped preserve hundreds of the city’s works of art and architecture. For a peek at a work-in-progress, head south to the 16th-century Chiesa di San Sebastiano in Dorsoduro to marvel at the jewel-like sacristy and restored ceilings resplendent with paintings by Paolo Veronese.
6.Bacaro Hop | 12:30 p.m.
For lunch, follow the lead of locals congregating outside bacari, traditional Venetian bars specializing in hors-d’oeuvre-size snacks called cicchetti. The alleys behind the Rialto Market are packed with bacari, so start there at Osteria Alla Ciurma, a wood-paneled spot where everything from meatballs to stuffed zucchini flowers is thrown into the fryer. Around the corner at All’Arco, pair pesce-crudo-topped toasts with an ombra, a tiny goblet of wine. Then continue to Cantina do Spade for fantastic fried calamari and crab claws beneath dark timbered ceilings. Finish the ambulatory meal at Osteria Bancogiro, where you can nibble on black polenta topped with baccalà mantecato — the whipped cod spread is a local specialty — at a perch overlooking the adjacent piazza.
7.Tadao’s Theater | 2 p.m.
After transforming Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana into contemporary arts centers for the collections of the French businessman François Pinault, the renowned Japanese architect Tadao Ando turned his attention to Teatrino, a formerly abandoned theater. In May 2013, the revamped, starkly modernist structure reopened with a 225-seat auditorium suitable for performances, lectures and screenings. Take a seat and enjoy what’s on; short films, like a recent pairing of video works from the French artist Laurent Montaron, often loop all day.
8.Dorsoduro Designs | 5 p.m.
Every third shop sells masks and Murano glass trinkets, but for less touristy souvenirs head to the southern sestiere of Dorsoduro. Laboratorio 2729 is a design studio and shop whose modish tableware ranges from cutting boards fashioned from slabs of maple to geometric-shaped wine stoppers. A few doors down, the boutique Madera stocks beautiful jewelry, handbags and housewares from local designers. And across a canal at Gualti, find wearable art like delicate leaf-shaped brooches and statement-making pleated-taffeta wraps.
9.Cannaregio Chow | 8 p.m.
Whet your appetite with a spritz and some cicchetti at Al Timon, a canalside bacaro in Cannaregio where regulars spill out along the sidewalk nightly. Then settle in for a seafood-centric dinner at Anice Stellato, a rustic osteria nearby. Most tables order the frittura mista — a tangle of fried squid, whole shrimp, small fish and vegetables (19 euros) — but don’t skip the starters, like stuffed calamari in a rich tomato sauce with grilled polenta (11 euros).
10.Insider Action | 10:30 p.m.
Venice night life got a boost last August when El Sbarlefo San Pantalon opened on an alley in Dorsoduro. Neon-yellow wall lights and pendant lamps illuminate this sleek little bar, where live music on weekends might be a jazz pianist or a rockabilly trio entertaining the crowd. Later, seek out Enoiteca Mascareta, one of the few spots open past midnight. A low-key industry place, this friendly wine bar is where chefs and servers from nearby restaurants congregate after their shifts to flirt over a glass of wine or a well-mixed gin and tonic.
SUNDAY
11.Sweet Start | 10:30 a.m.
Wake up at Torrefazione Marchi, a bustling coffee bar and roastery where Venetians have been slinging back their morning caffè since the 1930s. It’s elbow-to-elbow at the wooden counter, so make haste with a caffè macchiato, espresso “stained” with foamed milk (1.10 euros). Need a more substantive breakfast? Stop at Suso Gelatoteca for a sandwich — of the sweet variety. The artisanal gelateria’s twist on an ice-cream sandwich involves a thick slice of panettone stuffed with two generous scoops of gelato, one of which ought to be the divine Manet flavor: creamy salted pistachio layered atop chocolate-hazelnut gianduja (3.50 euros).
12.Tintoretto Time | Noon
Escape the midday crowds at the usually empty Chiesa della Madonna dell’Orto, whose 14th-century Venetian Gothic facade faces a quiet square in northern Cannaregio (admission, 2.50 euros). Inside are several masterpieces by Jacopo Tintoretto, the Venetian painter who is interred in the church’s Chapel of Tintoretto. For more of his works, head to Scuola Grande di San Rocco, a confraternity institution where the upper hall’s walls and vast ceiling are decorated with a biblical series so spectacular it is referred to as “Tintoretto’s Sistine Chapel” (admission, 10 euros).
13.Water Views | 2:30 p.m.
For a final, unforgettable Venetian vista, hop on a vaporetto bound for San Giorgio Maggiore, an island just east of Giudecca. Alight in front of the 16th-century Benedictine church and ascend the adjoining bell tower (5 euros). From this campanile, the priceless panorama spans the lagoon, the Lido, and the more than 100 islands interconnected by canals big and small that make up this most magical of Italian cities.
Owners: Matt Dean Pettit and Mike Homewood, who also own nearby Boots ‘n’ Bourbon, along with partners Darryl Fine and Alan Thomson
Chefs: Executive chef Matt Dean Pettit and corporate chef de cuisine Deron Engbers
The Food: Fans of the Ossington and Queen West locations will recognize the lobster boils, lobster rolls and elaborately garnished lobster-tail Caesars. Everything else is new, including lobster bruschetta, a fried-clam roll with Sriracha mayo and a few vegetarian dishes. There are also kids’ options, like mac ‘n’ cheese topped with crumbled Goldfish.
The Drinks: Ontario wine, craft beer and a handful of cocktails designed specifically for this location (including a fancy take on Mike’s Hard Lemonade).
The Place: The former Curzon room was rebuilt from ground up and decorated in Rock Lobster’s signature style—i.e. lots of woodwork and rustic Canadiana (decorative antlers, wall-mounted snowshoes). Like the other locations, there’s a huge, colourful mural painted by Matt Pettit’s dad, Donald Pettit. Unlike the other locations, there are three distinct patios—one on the street, one in the back and a tiny one squeezed into a side alleyway—all of which are licensed until 2 a.m.
The Halal Guys attracting a crowd, and a tourist, Camille Panzera of Brazil.Credit Dave Sanders for The New York Times
Some empires are managed from a distance: in corner offices, from cellphones on beaches, under palm fronds while being fanned by servants.
Hesham Hegazy, the general manager of the Midtown street-food empire the Halal Guys, prefers sitting by a window at a Starbucks at West 53rd Street and Sixth Avenue, where night after night he can observe his street-cart workers as they serve platter after platter of chicken and rice for ever-replenishing lines of customers.
One recent evening, Mr. Hegazy, 54, wearing a traditional kufi, sat with a coffee at one of his regular tables, with two Halal Guys carts within sight across the way. He will sometimes sit there late into the night. “To watch the guys,” he said, gesturing to the scene.
Mr. Hegazy manages one of the longest-running and best-known food-cart businesses in New York City with a style best described as old-fashioned. He receives email but almost never responds to it, preferring to conduct business over the phone or in person at the coffee shop.
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Hesham Hegazy, 54, the general manager of the Halal Guys, conducting business at a Starbucks in Midtown.Credit Dave Sanders for The New York Times
To proudly illustrate a story about the Halal Guys being the first halal cart to secure a trademark, he made a fast phone call in Arabic; moments later, a boyish-looking young man appeared at the table with a takeout bag bearing the logo as proof.
Before Mr. Hegazy arrives in the evenings, cart workers have been known to set out cones to secure him a parking spot on Sixth Avenue. The Halal Guys know how to work the street.
But things are about to change for the Guys. More than a decade after three Egyptian men switched from selling hot dogs from their Midtown cart to serving halal food to Muslim cabdrivers, the Halal Guys are about to become a fast-food chain. The company — founded by Mohamed Abouelenein, Ahmed Elsaka and Abdelbaset Elsayed — signed a deal with Fransmart, the restaurant franchise consulting firm that took Five Guys Burgers and Fries from four locations in Northern Virginia and helped turn it into a chain with more than 1,200 stores and more than $1 billion in sales last year. Qdoba, a Mexican food chain, is Fransmart’s other success story.
Within a year Fransmart hopes to open Halal Guys outlets in Los Angeles, along the East Coast, across Canada and in the Middle East. The five-year plan is for 100 locations, as well as a presence in Europe.
“It’s going to be the Chipotle of Middle Eastern food,” Dan Rowe, Fransmart’s chief executive, said. Only a few franchise-industry insiders know of the deal — the news will be formally announced at the International Franchise Expo starting June 19 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan — but Mr. Rowe said the interest so far had been tremendous. “A lot of people want this brand,” he said. But how will a brand so intrinsically tied to the streets of New York translate into a fast-food chain found in strip malls?
The other day, a customer eating lunch from the Halal Guys offered his opinion on the news. Anthony Greco, 26, who works in finance, was sitting on a sun-baked granite bench near the Museum of Modern Art devouring a platter. He said he had “no doubt” the franchise would be successful. “I think it is a staple of New York, so it’s going to be different,” he said. “Me and my boys come in from Jersey, through the tunnel, on nights just to eat it.”
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The popular food-cart business will move into its first brick-and-mortar shop on 14th Street, just off Second Avenue, next month.Credit Dave Sanders for The New York Times
But Mr. Greco conceded that part of the appeal was the atmosphere. “It will lose something,” he said. “You look forward to eating it on the street.”
An early glimpse at what a Halal Guys franchise might look like will come next month when the first shop opens on 14th Street, just off Second Avenue. A second location is planned to open near Columbia University’s campus in the fall. Though these restaurants are technically not franchises (the Fransmart contract was signed after the company decided to expand from the carts), their design and their menus could provide the template for future locations.
The 14th Street shop has a sign with the familiar Halal Guys yellow (a nod to taxi cabs). The gyro and chicken dishes from the trucks will be on the menu, as well as new healthier options and Middle Eastern desserts. In an email, Mr. Rowe said that the portions might be larger and slightly more expensive — a platter at the truck costs $6 — and that the shops will be designed for “speed like the carts.”
But the food seems almost secondary to the brand’s potential. “What charges me up is we will be the first and the biggest Middle Eastern street-food concept,” Mr. Rowe said.
“Everyone has heard of them,” he added. “They’ve got the street cred. It’s got everything going for it.”
Mr. Rowe pursued the Halal Guys aggressively — he described the franchise as a “category killer” — eventually taking the train up from Washington for discussions. He met Mr. Hegazy at the Starbucks. Negotiations took more than a year.
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Mohamed Abouelenein, left, and Abdelbaset Elsayed, who signed a franchise deal.Credit Dave Sanders for The New York Times
When asked if he was concerned that the company’s name or its associations with Muslim culture might not play as well in certain parts of the country (halal food is prepared in accordance with Islamic law), Mr. Rowe said it never affected his confidence. He could easily envision a plan that took Halal Guys franchises from Miami through Florida, radiating from Boston and Chicago into the suburbs. “By the time we’re in Chattanooga,” he said, “there will be so much good buzz, they will be excited to try it.”
Today, you can find carts serving pork-and-chive dumplings, lobster rolls and fat-marbled pastrami sandwiches on rye. But the Midtown of the early ’90s as described by the original Halal Guys was a barren landscape for street food, aside from hot dog carts.
The owners had been approached in the past with franchising opportunities, but Mr. Elsayed said that now felt like the right time, adding that they were comfortable with Mr. Rowe. “People from all over the world come here and they wonder what’s going on,” he said in his strongly accented English. “Why you guys so busy? What’s so good about it? And that makes us wonder, it’s about time to franchise.” He also emphasized that the carts would remain.
How much money the Halal Guys makes is something of a mystery and has been a source of speculation among food bloggers. “We sell a lot” is the most definitive answer Mr. Hegazy will offer. “I never say.”
“We are a street cart; they watch us like this,” he said of the Internal Revenue Service, making the “I’ve got my eye on you” gesture with his fingers.
Zach Brooks, the founder of Midtownlunch.com, a popular blog that has chronicled the city’s street-food scene since 2006, has followed the Halal Guys for years. “Those carts probably pull in a couple hundred grand a year,” he said. “But I don’t want to sound like an idiot. They could be making a million bucks.”
As to why the brand has become so strong, appearing on the to-do lists of tourists and standing above countless imitators, that, too, is something of a mystery. Maybe, Mr. Brooks suggested, the Halal Guys used better meat? Maybe it was the white sauce that is slathered over everything? Maybe it’s because people can’t remember a time when they weren’t there?
“It’s the most perfectly crafted platter of street meat there is,” he concluded.
But Mr. Brooks was ambivalent about the franchise news. “I don’t know, man,” he said. “In a lot of ways you can’t take street meat off the streets.”
