Windermere restaurateur to open MOOYAH franchise

A Windermere resident is going back to the area where his restaurant career started to open a new burger franchise.

Tareq Qarman is opening MOOYAH Burgers, Fries & Shakes at 8126 International Drive, Orlando, this fall. The fast-casual restaurant specializes in serving up quality burgers, fries and shakes. Buns are baked fresh daily, and the food is made to order. The first MOOYAH restaurant opened in 2007 in Plano, Texas, and has since expanded to include more than 100 different franchise locations.

Qarman is no stranger to the restaurant industry. In addition to MOOYAH, he has been a franchisee with Ben and Jerry’s for about 10 years and currently owns five different locations throughout the Orlando area. Prior to becoming a franchise owner with Ben and Jerry’s, he worked in several positions in the more than 16 years he worked with Golden Corral.

“I started with Golden Corral right out of high school,” Qarman said. “I became a cashier, did prep (work), and was a dishwasher. … My career took off a little bit with Golden Corral (and I went) from employee to management.”

During his career with Golden Corral, he balanced work with school and eventually earned a bachelor’s degree in business. His time with that restaurant may be over now, but the location he chose for his next culinary adventure is not far from that Golden Corral restaurant that launched his career.

“(I’m coming) full circle by coming to the same real estate (as Golden Corral), but now I’m coming in as a business owner,” Qarman said. “It feels good, and that was the first thing that clicked in my mind. I was like, ‘Wow, I’ve been here, but I was just starting.’ I didn’t know what was coming.” 

Qarman said he chose MOOYAH because he wanted to experiment with a restaurant concept that was different from his existing Ben and Jerry’s franchises. He said the family-centered atmosphere and the quality of the food MOOYAH offers is what drew him to the company

“I looked at different concepts, I tried different concepts, I visited different concepts, and I was just impressed with MOOYAH, their food, their international presence and their overall look,” he said. 

Although there are more than 100 MOOYAH franchise locations, Qarman said his location will have something fun for the whole family that other MOOYAH locations don’t have — an arcade.

“I think it’ll be a great experience (for customers),” he said. “A family can come in, they get to eat and then they can go (to the arcade).”