“It’s going to be the Chipotle of Middle Eastern food,” Dan Rowe, Fransmart’s chief executive, said. Only a few franchise-industry insiders know of the deal — the news will be formally announced at the International Franchise Expo starting June 19 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan — but Mr. Rowe said the interest so far had been tremendous. “A lot of people want this brand,” he said. But how will a brand so intrinsically tied to the streets of New York translate into a fast-food chain found in strip malls?

The other day, a customer eating lunch from the Halal Guys offered his opinion on the news. Anthony Greco, 26, who works in finance, was sitting on a sun-baked granite bench near the Museum of Modern Art devouring a platter. He said he had “no doubt” the franchise would be successful. “I think it is a staple of New York, so it’s going to be different,” he said. “Me and my boys come in from Jersey, through the tunnel, on nights just to eat it.”

But Mr. Greco conceded that part of the appeal was the atmosphere. “It will lose something,” he said. “You look forward to eating it on the street.”

Image The popular food-cart business will move into its first brick-and-mortar shop on 14th Street, just off Second Avenue, next month. Credit... Dave Sanders for The New York Times

An early glimpse at what a Halal Guys franchise might look like will come next month when the first shop opens on 14th Street, just off Second Avenue. A second location is planned to open near Columbia University’s campus in the fall. Though these restaurants are technically not franchises (the Fransmart contract was signed after the company decided to expand from the carts), their design and their menus could provide the template for future locations.

The 14th Street shop has a sign with the familiar Halal Guys yellow (a nod to taxi cabs). The gyro and chicken dishes from the trucks will be on the menu, as well as new healthier options and Middle Eastern desserts. In an email, Mr. Rowe said that the portions might be larger and slightly more expensive — a platter at the truck costs $6 — and that the shops will be designed for “speed like the carts.”

But the food seems almost secondary to the brand’s potential. “What charges me up is we will be the first and the biggest Middle Eastern street-food concept,” Mr. Rowe said.