Doner Shack specializes in kebabs, sliders, chicken tenders, wraps, fries and milkshakes.
The Mediterranean fast-casual restaurant brand that got its start in the United Kingdom is making its initial franchise push in the United States with three multi-unit agreements signed in Florida, Las Vegas and Dallas.
Florida State University alum Krish Patel has a pretty good idea what the students hunger for when football season gets underway and their passion for their beloved Seminoles reaches a fever pitch.
“They love their tailgate parties and I know younger people will love the great food we will have for them at Doner Shack,” said Patel, who graduated from FSU more than a decade ago.
Patel signed a development agreement with Doner Shack, the Mediterranean fast-casual restaurant brand that got its start in the United Kingdom and is now making a franchise push in the United States.
Krish Patel plans to open three Donor Shacks in Tallahassee, Florida.
Patel, a first-time restaurant owner, plans to open three Doner Shacks—which specializes in kebabs, sliders, chicken tenders, wraps, fries and milkshakes—in his hometown of Tallahassee, Florida, starting this summer.
Patel is one of the first U.S. franchisees for the brand that was founded by chef Sanjeev Sanghera and Laura Bruce, who own three stores in the U.K. Jason Steele, the CEO of Steele Advisory Group which is taking the lead on development and real estate for Doner Shack, said the company has agreements signed for 27 U.S. units and 260 international units.
Doner Shack is Patel’s first venture in the restaurant space.
“I own two gas stations in Tallahassee and I was looking for another business to do and wanted to do something with food. I’m a huge fan of kebabs and this was the perfect opportunity to own, cook and serve the best kebabs and other delicious foods,” Patel said.
Doner Shack enters a growing Mediterranean restaurant space with brands like The Halal Guys, Nick the Greek, Garbanzo Mediterranean Fresh, Shawarma Press, The Great Greek Mediterranean and Pita Pit.
Jason Steele, CEO of Steele Advisory Group, is taking the lead on development and real estate for Doner Shack.
Steele said one of the advantages the brand has is being the first to incorporate a robotic kebab technology to ensure speed and consistency for food preparation.
“The other big differentiator for us is the quality of our food. We got great reviews at the Qatar Food Festival which was an invite only event,” said Steele. “We were the talk of the town there and instantly got a lot of interests from franchisees wanting to do master agreements with us in other countries.”
Steele has more than 30 years of franchise experience and was vice president of development for Quiznos and Charleys Philly Steaks.
Steel said the company is in the process of relocating to Miami and setting up corporate headquarters there to go along with Glasgow, Scotland, and Dubai. The plan is to open corporate locations here in the states in different parts country where the company is targeting growth.
He said the goal is sign 35 to 50 single and multi-unit agreements this year and 100 to 150 agreements in 2026. To speed up development, it’s offering franchise fee and royalty incentives through the end of April.
In addition to Patel, Steele said that the company has signed multi-unit agreements with experienced multi-brand operators in Dallas and Las Vegas. He said doner kebabs are the most popular fast food in Europe and the Middle East, outselling all other concepts.
“Our ultimate goal is to become the number one kebab franchise in the world. We believe America is the route to achieve this by focusing on not just each state, but each city and each individual franchisee developing in that area,” Bruce said in a statement.
Donor Shack was founded by Laura Bruce and chef Sanjeev Sanghera.
Doner Shack is registered to develop in all 50 states, said Steele. Its franchise disclosure document does not yet include an Item 19, but reported its investment range of $498,000 to just over $1 million. Steele said that the U.K. stores are seeing between $24,000 and $30,000 a week in sales.
“We’re seeing very high sales in the U.K. and obviously there is a lot of reasons for this including a lot of options we are making available for different size builds. With this type of concept that you can do a 500-to-600-square-foot kiosk or you can do a 2,500-square-foot drive-thru or an 1,800-square-foot in-line, in-cap type of space. It’s all very flexible on a design standpoint,” Steele said.
For his three locations in Tallahassee, Patel is not quite sure which format he’s going to choose. He said he wants to place one of his stores near the Florida State Capitol with other two closer to the university.
“I want to move fast and open the first one in August when the students come back and I can leverage the start of the football season when the foot traffic will be highest,” he said. “We’re going to see 100,000, 200,000 people walking through Tallahassee for the games and they’ll come in, eat our food and spread the word about how good we are.”