Making $2.3 million selling Halal BBQ in Texas

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SoundTikTok sound · original sound - businessinsider

Promoted product

Kafi BBQkafibbq.com

4 videos

Why it worked

The video uses a strong 'rags to riches' narrative hook combined with a counter-intuitive business premise (Halal BBQ in Texas) to drive curiosity and engagement.

Summary

The owner of Kafi BBQ explains how he transitioned from a tech career to opening a successful halal barbecue restaurant in Texas. He details the challenges of operating without pork and shares the impressive revenue growth of his business.

Structure

1Introduction to the business concept
2Addressing the skepticism of the market
3Explaining the operational challenges of halal BBQ
4Sharing revenue figures and growth projections
5

Original caption

Everyone told him a #halal #BBQ restaurant wouldn't work in #Texas. #TexasBBQ #restaurant #entrepreneurr #SmallBusiness

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Product placement

The video features the restaurant Kafi BBQ, showing the owner, the kitchen, and the food being prepared.

Call to action

Watch the full video on Insider Food's YouTube channel

On-screen text

Making $2.3 million selling Halal BBQ in Texas Salahodeen Abdul-Kafi, Owner, Kafi BBQ Watch the full video on Insider Food's YouTube channel

Transcript

I went from working in Silicon Valley to opening a multi-million dollar halal barbecue restaurant. A lot of people told me that I was crazy to open a halal barbecue spot here in Texas. But I realized that Texas barbecue market had a huge gap that I needed to fill. My name is Salahodeen Abdul-Kafi, I am the owner of Kafi BBQ here in Irving, Texas. It's a lot more difficult to be a halal barbecue restaurant. We don't serve pork at Kafi BBQ and in Texas, pork is the highest margin item on every menu because it's really cheap to acquire and it's really fast to cook. So we had to more or less reinvent the wheel to make this work. We made just under $2.3 million in total revenue our first year in business. For 2026, our projected revenue is between $3.6 and $4 million dollars. What we're trying to do here is we're trying to make the best barbecue in Texas that happens to be halal.