A new burger joint is coming to Monroe thanks to a young restaurateur who found a niche opening burger joints inside gas stations. Taystee’s Burgers, founded in Dearborn by Ali Jawad, 32, will be opening this Friday, July 17.
Knowing for its award-winning burgers, the Monroe location is the chain’s southernmost location. It is part of Jawad’s plan to expand, adding three to five locations per year, according to a news release. Potential expansion sites include locations in Ohio and Chicago.
Jawad’s gas station model is meant to offer a “premium food concept” that complements rather than competes with the station. Taystee’s locations do not sell drinks, and its cook-time aligns with fueling or EV charging times.
“We’re not competing with the gas station. We’re the reason people stay a little longer,” Jawad said.
Its burgers are known for their signature sauce, like a mayo-based Thousand Island dressing, 100% halal beef patties and huge assortment of toppings. It was a dozen years ago that Jawad set out to sell burgers inside his grandfather’s Dearborn gas station.
Taystee’s initial menu in Dearborn includes its Original, still a go-to that’s topped with pickles, lettuce, tomato, grilled onions, and its signature Taystee sauce.
Taystee’s original menu also included:
• The Special• The Mac Attack• The BBQ Burger• Crispy or grilled chicken
Over the years, the menu expanded and now features a dozen burger options. There are also healthier bowl options, wraps, kids’ meals and hand-cut fries with various seasonings and toppings.
Now Jawad’s mind is focused on opening in Monroe. That location, too, will open inside a gas station at 643 N. Telegraph Road.
While opening 10 locations was an early goal of Jawad, a burger joint wasn’t the original plan.
Jawad wanted to bring a Nathan’s Famous hot dog outpost to his grandfather’s Dearborn gas station on Ford Road across from the Wyoming Drive-in.
Instead, Jawad said his grandfather told him he should come up with his own idea. Jawad, then 21, came up with the burger concept. He poured his life’s savings of $20,000 into opening Taystee’s Burgers on November 16, 2014, three weeks after his 21st birthday.
Jawad, now 32, says the business was off to a rocky start and its early days were overwhelming.
“When you’re 21, you see all your friends going out, having fun, going to parties, dates or whatever, and I’m sitting here barely selling a couple hundred dollars a day.”
One night, he walked into his mother Lila’s room and told her he didn’t know if he could keep going.“She said, ‘If you want to quit, quit. But just know everyone who told you you’re going to fail — now they’re right.’”That response sank in, and Jawad said he sat down and wrote out a list of everything he wanted in life.
“I was so young; I don’t think I really understood what it takes to keep something really moving,” he said.
With that list, drive, ambition, and his mother — his proudest champion — he worked hard and set goals.
Over the years, Jawad grew the business and brand by reinvesting profits. He bought equipment one piece at a time and paid extra on his $1,000 credit card limit to raise it enough to buy more supplies.
“It’s funny looking back now,” he says, “but that’s what kept us alive.”
It didn’t take long.
A winning burger
Two years after opening, Jawad heard of the Detroit Burger Brawl competition taking place on a June Sunday at Eastern Market. He inquired, asking if they had room for one more.
“We ended up joining it like four days before the competition,” Jawad said. “It wasn’t like a far-in-advance thing.”
Jawad and staff wowed the Detroit Burger Brawl crowds with the original Taystee’s Burger.
For the judges (full disclosure I was a judge that year), Jawad wanted to wow them.
“I switched it to the nacho burger,” Jawad said.
It proved to be a good move, as Ali’s Nacho Burger won the competition. Still on the menu, Jawad said the burger is a best seller. The burger is a hearty meal. It’s Taystee’s 100% halal burger patty, lettuce, tomato, grilled onions, jalapeños, American, Swiss and Pepper Jack cheese, nacho cheese Doritos, mayonnaise and hot sauce all on a brioche bun.
After winning the Burger Brawl, everything changed.
The competition was not only exciting for Jawad and his family, but it also boosted business big time.After the very end of competition, heavy storms rolled through Detroit. Jawad and his mother, drenched from the storm, headed back to Dearborn.
“We pull up, and we see the place lined up,” Lila Jawad said. “People were just … we just heard you won. And they’re calling. The phones are going crazy. We started calling more workers in to help us, and we all, like, couldn’t even change our clothes.”
Lines and nonstop ringing phone, Lila Jawad said, continue for the week.
“The place was just packed and lined up just all day,” she said.
A growing franchise
Since winning the Burger Brawl, Taystee’s Burgers has grown to three corporate-owned and seven franchise locations.Inside the Dearborn locations, there’s a wall of “best of” awards from various media and other outlets. Included on the wall is a plaque of Jawad’s 2022 “Forbes 30 under 30” feature. He was 28 at the time and shocked to make the list.
“I thought it was just really cool being considered as a potential candidate,” Jawad. “They don’t let you know until the list comes out. “
Jawad said he enjoyed the moment and the day and continued setting goals for himself.
“Hopefully, maybe one day be on the cover,” he said.
Early on, building Taystee’s into more locations within two years of its opening was one such goal.
But it was his grandfather, Tom Safiedine, who, even though Jawad had success early on, told him he wasn’t ready.
“I got mad at the time, but he was right,” Jawad said. “There’s still so much to learn along the way.”
That was a dozen years ago.
Now Jawad’s mind is in Monroe, the 10th location in the chain.
At the Monroe location grand opening, the first 200 customers will receive a custom Monroe Takeover T-shirt, and kids will get a free drawstring bag.
On site, there will be face painting for children and a Monroe-area DJ until 1 p.m.
Taystee’s Burgers in Monroe takes online orders at www.taysteesburger.com or through DoorDash.Customers who sign up for its Tay Bucks rewards program get $5 off their first $30 purchase.
Contact Detroit Free Press food and restaurant writer Susan Selasky and send food and restaurant news and tips to: sselasky@freepress.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @SusanMariecooks. Subscribe to the Eat Drink Freep newsletter for insider scoops on food and dining in metro Detroit.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: New gas station built burger joint opening its 10th location in Monroe
Reporting by Susan Selasky and Matthew Sokol, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Susan Selasky and Matthew Sokol, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
