Could This Halal Burger Mini-Chain Become the Next Five Guys?

Two years since its Midwest outposts opened, Urban Skillet has carved out a dedicated following in Minneapolis’s fast-casual market

Urban Skillet’s half-pound Truffle Banger burger, an ultra-aromatic riff on a classic mushroom-swiss, comes topped with halal bacon — not quite the oxymoron you might think. It’s turkey bacon, cut into thick, rippled ribbons, and balanced atop two smashed beef patties layered with caramelized onions, truffle aioli, and sauteed mushrooms.

Urban Skillet opened in Minneapolis’s Uptown neighborhood in February 2022. Owner MJ Mohammed brought the restaurant to Minnesota after eating at its original location, in Los Angeles’s North Hollywood neighborhood, a few years back — he worked with founder Azeem Farooq to launch it cross-country. Today, two years later, the mini-chain has expanded to Santa Monica, Northridge, and Houston (with locations in Dallas and Irvine pending). In Minneapolis, meanwhile, it has carved out a dedicated following, offering a glimpse of a fast-casual market that’s growing to meet rising demand for halal food in the U.S.

Mohammed grew up in Minnesota. When he first visited Urban Skillet in LA, he says, there was “something different” about the food, something that told him, intuitively, that he needed to bring the restaurant back to Minneapolis. “We never had a halal spot just like McDonald’s, where you can have fresh food that a lot of people like me can relate to,” he says. Mohammed had no experience in the restaurant industry — he was working in real estate at the time — but he quit his job and got to work securing permits and a location. “That’s what motivated me,” he says. “It wasn’t for me, it was to bring it back for the community.”

The pandemic presented a number of setbacks, but when the restaurant finally opened in 2022, it garnered a huge response — the halal burgers got traction on TikTok, fueling the hype around the grand opening. About a year later, Mohammed parlayed that success into a second location in Minneapolis’s Cedar Riverside neighborhood, the heart of the Cities’ Somali community, where he says it’s been super popular so far.

Mohammed has continued to expand the menu, too. Burgers — 12 different kinds — are still the main feature, but Urban Skillet also serves loaded fried and tots, chicken wings doused in sauces like mango habanero and garlic Parm, wraps, and thick, creamy milkshakes. The restaurant runs a brisk takeout business, too — Mohammed says it has a whole cast of regulars on DoorDash who’ve placed the same order “hundreds” of times.

Urban Skillet

Urban Skillet’s success parallels a rising demand for halal food in the U.S.’s restaurant market, evident in big metropolitan areas like New York but also in smaller markets and among fast-casual chains like Dave’s Hot Chicken and Atomic Wings. After seeing almost $9 billion in growth between 2016 and 2021, the market is projected to continue to grow another 7.5 percent between 2022 and 2027, according to a recent study. Part of that growth is driven by Muslim diners, but recent studies have also indicated rising interest in halal food among non-Muslim diners, who — because halal food is prepared in accordance with Islamic dietary practices that dictate the way an animal is fed, raised, and slaughtered — are turning to it for health and ethical reasons.

That tracks for Mohammed: He gets all types of customers, he says, regardless of religion. “Sometimes you’d walk in here and you wouldn’t even tell if it’s halal or not,” he says. “People will just come in and be like ‘I like the food.’ It’s exciting, it brings people together.” He says that Urban Skillet offers a sense of community — he often sees families eating together at the restaurant, as well as teachers, students, and friends. A book club meets regularly at the Uptown location.

Urban Skillet’s Hennepin Avenue spot is directly behind a Five Guys. Mohammed says he raised some eyebrows when he decided to open there. “People were like, are you serious?” he says. “You can’t put it next to a $5 billion company.” He swears that the proximity hasn’t felt like a competition — he believes that if anything, it’s likely increased traffic for both businesses.

Some might assume that the Minnesota outpost of a halal mini-chain would be dwarfed by America’s favorite burger — but not that long ago, Five Guys was just a handful of burger spots in the DMV. Mohammed sees expansion in the restaurant’s future, in Minnesota or beyond it. “I’m sure there’ll be more Urban Skillets — I don’t know if it will be me, or other people,” Mohammed says. “We even get Canadians coming here, people from Europe. So I’m sure it’ll be in other countries and other places.”