To his friends and family, Salahodeen Abdul-Kafi had always been a barbecue maven.
A few years ago, he was unable to walk into Kroger to buy halal brisket and had to purchase from a specialty store to give his friends and family a taste of Texas. Now, Abdul-Kafi owns and operates Kafi BBQ, one of the highest-ranked barbecue restaurants in the country — where all items on the menu are halal, meaning the meat is suitable for Muslims to eat.
“As a Muslim consumer and even as a non-pork consumer, it’s actually very hard to have barbecue in Texas,” Abdul-Kafi said.
Every weekend for a year, Abdul-Kafi would take a break from his full-time job as a project manager to sell halal brisket out of his house. After continuous demand and a few large catering gigs, Kafi BBQ was born in Irving in December 2024, and is now located in a strip mall at 8140 N. MacArthur Blvd…