Hussaini Family Brings Halal Fast-Casual Food to Franklin

Photos by Cherrie Hanson

From left, brothers Haseeb, Baseer and Naseer Hussaini bring their favorite Chicago-based halal restaurant to Milwaukee.

When members of the Hussaini family craved delicious fast food, they would drive at least once a month to a Chi Tea restaurant in the Chicago area to get their fix. When they saw they weren’t the only ones from the Milwaukee area seeking halal hot chicken sandwiches and smash burgers, a longtime aspiration clicked into place. 

Baseer and Haseeb Hussaini recently opened Chi Tea Hot Chicken and Burgers, 7251 S. 76th Street, Franklin, the first Wisconsin location for the Chicagoland chain. The fast-casual restaurant, located in a former Pizza Hut space at the Franklin Centre plaza, had its grand opening June 26.

The new Chi Tea restaurant (the name refers to chicken + boba tea) brings the brothers’ business dream to fruition. 

“The idea has been there for a few years, and we thought that something like this would do great in Franklin,” Haseeb said. 

The two realized that Chi Tea would fill a void in the Milwaukee area for food that is not only fast-casual, but halal.

“Number one, the quality of the food is great. Second, there’s really nothing like this in the City of Milwaukee, or even Wisconsin in general. We felt that people were really looking for fast, pickup food where they don’t necessarily have to dine in,” Baseer said.

Chi Tea restaurant has dine-in seating and ample bench seating in the waiting room for carryout.

The franchise, which has multiple locations in the Chicago area along with a restaurant in Texas, is popular for its halal-certified fried chicken sandwiches, smash burgers, loaded fries and handcrafted boba tea. 

“Once they agreed to work with us, we started looking for the perfect location,” Haseeb said. “This strip mall drew us in because it has a lot going on and it’s a good, high-traffic area,” he said, noting the Pick ‘n’ Save and a range of thriving businesses and a large dental clinic. Additionally, Franklin High School is nearby, and a new Islamic school is being built just minutes away. 

Once Baseer and Haseeb had committed to be franchisees, they took on-the-job training at the Chi Tea restaurants.

“I’ve never worked at a kitchen,” Baseer said “So, we would go to Chicago for two months straight—we went every single weekend to their different locations in Illinois—to train and get different experiences. The franchise owners did a great job of assisting us in what we needed to know and providing us all the details and all the recipes and making sure that we didn’t open before we felt like we were ready to run the business on our own,” he said.

On June 27th the Hussaini family celebrated the grand opening of Chi Tea with a ribbon cutting ceremony by Franklin’s mayor John Nelson.

Concise menu delivers quality and consistency

Because Haseeb and Baseer loved the food and the business model, Chi Tea was a logical choice for their new business venture.

“My go-to foods are a nice chicken sandwich, a good smash burger, and when you combine it with boba, it’s amazing,” Baseer said. 

Haseeb said his longtime menu favorite was the popular Big Bird, a Nashville-style hot chicken sandwich. The coleslaw topping is key, he said.

“The coleslaw 100 percent makes the sandwich for me. It’s just the perfect mix of ingredients,” Haseeb said. His current favorite, however, is Beef Loaded Fries paired with his go-to drink: peach boba with mango popping pearls (they pop on your tongue with a little burst of flavor).

“Along with the fried chicken sandwich (grilled is an option), loaded fries and boba tea, smash burgers, wings, mac and cheese, fried pickles, fruit teas, chai tea and banana pudding round out the menu.

“Besides loving the food, another reason why I really like this franchise is that the menu is very limited and everything we make is to perfection,” Baseer said.

“You’re not spread too thin. And the meat is fresh, antibiotic-free and everything is natural with no preservatives. Our chicken and even our beef is never frozen. Everything is made fresh to order.” 

Business is a family affair

Haseeb has an information technology management degree from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and previously worked at Johnson Controls, while Baseer is a full-time industrial engineer at Ingeteam, a global renewable energy company based in Milwaukee. Both said the restaurant is humming along thanks to their family. Their younger brother Naseer works in the restaurant as the “boba man.” Their father Wahab, an experienced business owner, is a main investor in the business and a valuable mentor to his sons. 

Jamal Amro and his son Adam enjoy refreshers and conversation while waiting for their food order. 

“We learned a lot from my dad in terms of how to operate and manage a successful business, from inventory to all the business-related aspects that go into it,” Baseer said. “We’ve been learning the business side of things our entire lives and that helped us a lot in dealing with customers and customer service and making sure that the customer is getting the quality product that they deserve.”

Haseeb said business runs in the family.

“Business is something that my family has a passion for—my parents, my uncles—we just come from a business family, so even though it’s something that we didn’t know we had in us, me and my brothers, it was basically instilled in us,” Haseeb said.

Chi Tea Hot Chicken and Burgers is located at 7251 S. 76th Street in Franklin.

Their mother, Farheen, vice principal at Salam Elementary School, pitches in preparing tea, making mac and cheese and even working the fryers. Baseer’s wife Jehan, a speech pathologist, helped design the space—even drawing up a blueprint—created promotional flyers, helped set up online ordering and lends a hand at the restaurant whenever needed. Her father, Nabil Salous, an engineer and contractor, did Chi Tea’s interior build-out and construction.

Engineer Nabil Salous relaxes in waiting area he helped design and build. 

After being open for about a month, the Hussainis are pleased with the reception they have received and the brisk pace of the business. 

“So far, the response has been amazing,” Baseer said. “We’re seeing different ethnicities, we’re seeing different ages. What we would like to see, and we’re seeing right now, is it’s inclusive, and it brings all kinds of people out, which is what you need for a successful business and for the longevity of it.”