Fast-growing chain Tex’s Chicken & Burgers is expanding with a location in Shirley, its sixth restaurant on Long Island.

The halal Southern-style food chain, which opened Monday at 425 William Floyd Pkwy., is the first of the Long Island locations to include a drive-through, said chief operating officer and managing partner Najib Ullah. The eatery is also open until 3 a.m. 

Tex's Chicken & Burgers joins a host of other halal restaurants in Shirley,according to a Google search, including Smack n' Chick, a similarly themed restaurant with Nashville hot fried chicken. There are also other halal options in Shirley, including Naz's Halal Food, which serves gyro and kebabs.

"We heard about this neighborhood," said Ullah. "They're very proud and community-focused and it's an up-and-coming area where there's new businesses coming in."

The chain also has locations at Hicksville, Levittown, East Islip, Selden and Centereach. A Patchogue location will open in the next few months, Ullah said.

The Bronx-based company, founded in 2016, has 51 locations in New York, five in Pennsylvania, one in New Jersey and one in Virginia, according to its website. Ullah said they are looking into franchising later this year.

Tex's Chicken & Burgers' menu includes fried chicken marinated in-house daily, as well as 5-ounce burgers that are cooked to order, Ullah said. Other items include biscuits, fries and a brownie for dessert.

The Shirley restaurant been in development for five years and was delayed by COVID, but Ullah said he's happy with the end-product.

"It's been a very long project," Ullah, 28, of Centereach said. "But it's been awesome. We've had a busy grand opening week."

The restaurant is staffed mostly by workers from other Tex's Chicken & Burgers locations, said manager Atiq Amani. It will eventually have around 25 employees.

Amani, 32, of Levittown has been with the company since its inception and said he worked his way up from cooking and cleaning to manager and partner. Most recently, he worked at the Selden location.

"Working here is like a family," Amani said.