The Warriors’ Latest Slam Dunk? Halal Food

It’s been a month of milestones for the Golden State Warriors, who in recent weeks have seen Steph Curry swish his 4,000th three-pointer and then, just two nights later, watched as Steve Kerr became the team’s all-time winningest head coach.

Later this week, the Chase Center will mark another, more delicious breakthrough. For the first time ever, Warriors fans will be able to purchase halal food inside the arena — hefty, well-packed burritos from San Jose’s El Halal Amigos, to be specific. The halal-friendly burritos will be featured during the Dubs’ game against the Denver Nuggets on Friday, April 4, which the team has designated as its fourth annual Muslim Heritage Night, in collaboration with food festival organizer HalalFest.

“It’s a big step right now in a most vital time — to be a Palestinian, to be a Muslim, and go into a very popular, brand new stadium and be recognized,” El Halal Amigos chef-owner Hisham Abdelfattah says.

In addition to the food, the event will also include official Warriors-branded Muslim Heritage Night T-shirts, opportunities for kids from local Muslim communities to high-five the players as they’re coming out of the tunnel, and a designated prayer room.

Getting to serve halal food to young Warriors fans at the game feels particularly meaningful to Abdelfattah, who says he often felt left out as a Muslim kid growing up.

“I went to sports games my whole life with my dad,” he says. “I remember being at Niner games, A’s games when I was seven, eight, nine years old, and I would only get to eat popcorn or soda. I never got the really cool burgers; I never got to have that hot dog experience. It sucked.”

When the call to prayer came during the game, Abdelfattah and his father would just have to pray out on the concourse in front of everybody. He still remembers how uncomfortable that felt: “At the time, it was very weird for people to see that.”

It feels like a real landmark in representation, then, for Abdelfattah to be able to sell his burritos (via pre-purchase) at Friday’s game, and for the Warriors to provide a place where Muslim fans can pray in private — even if it is only for one night. In the past, the only viable food options for halal-keeping Chase Center attendees have been located outside the arena itself (including Fikscue, the forthcoming Indo-Tex halal barbecue spot in Thrive City). For Friday night’s Muslim Heritage Night promotion, the concessions team will also offer a halal chicken option at the Modelo Cantina restaurant in the Upper Concourse.

Muslim Heritage Night has grown steadily since it started during the peak of the pandemic. “Last year, over 600 people from the Muslim community came,” HalalFest founder Irfan Rydhan says.

A handful of tickets for this year’s event, ranging from $110 to $320 each, are still available by emailing HalalFest at info@halalfest.com. Food tickets need to be purchased separately through the same email address — $23 for a burrito (steak or chicken), or $20 each when purchasing four or more. Each order will come with a side of chips and El Halal Amigos’ signature Nar (Arabic for “hellfire”) hot sauce.

All told, Abdelfattah expects to wrap between 100 and 200 burritos for Friday’s game. The dream, he says, would be to eventually bring El Halal Amigos — and halal food, more broadly — to Chase Center on a long-term basis. (Indeed, a similar collab with the San Jose Sharks culminated in a permanent El Halal Amigos concessions stand at the SAP Center.)

“When I was growing up, it was just very unheard of to see halal food in cool places,” Abdelfattah says. “And now I can’t believe that I’m the one serving it. That’s cool, you know?”

This year’s Muslim Heritage Night will take place during the Warriors vs. Nuggets game at the Chase Center at 7 p.m. on Friday, April 4. To take part in the promotion, purchase tickets to the game by emailing info@halalfest.com. Pre-purchase El Halal Amigos food tickets via the same email address by no later than April 2. After ordering, customers will receive instructions on where to pick up their food during the game.