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Halal Guys Will Bring Their Famed Street Meat To Long Beach In The New Year
The Halal Guys, New York's celebrated purveyors of gyros, chicken and rice platters, are finally bringing their famous street meat to L.A. County in the new year, and they're bringing that magical "white sauce" with them.
Those who made the trek to Costa Mesa to stand in two hour-plus lines at the Halal Guys' first West Coast spot, can now rejoice because their Long Beach outpost will open on January 2nd. The new location is much smaller than Orange County one—taking up approximately 1,200 square feet—but that shouldn't be a problem considering more than 90% of the customers take their orders to go. At least, that is, according to owner Thomas Pham, who operates both locations with business partners Paul Tran, Andrew Chen, Phillip Hoang and Alvin Wong.
"We expect this to be bigger and crazier than the Costa Mesa one, Pham tells LAist. "I love this plaza and it's much less of a trek for people coming from L.A."
The Long Beach location is prime real estate, located in a busy strip mall next to a Chipotle and not too far from Cal State Long Beach. And unlike the OC outpost, the city of Long Beach has no problems with Halal Guys staying open daily until 2 a.m. Similar to the Costa Mesa location, the new spot will have hummus, falafel, French fries, baba ghanouj, tahini, and baklava for dessert, as well as their famous chicken, rice plates and gyro sandwiches. What will be unique to this location is the tabbouleh—a tart, parsley-centric vegetarian salad—which will launch at this Long Beach location and be added to the Costa Mesa menu soon after.
The Southern Californian expansion is also far from over. "We're very picky about where we go. We're looking to go to San Diego in the Gas Lamp District and to Los Angeles," Pham tells us. "We're expecting to open three-four stores next year just in Southern California."
For those super fans that want to be the first in line for the grand opening on January 2nd, Pham says to expect giveaways and tons of free Halal Guys swag. Moving forward, Halal Guys Long Beach will be open from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. everyday.
Halal Guys is located at 1804 Ximeno Avenue in Long Beach, (347) 527-1505.
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