After learning Mary Brown's offers a halal menu, this man was able to have his first taste in 6 years

Mary Brown's restaurants are a staple in Newfoundland and Labrador communities, and the company is expanding across Canada and into international markets including Pakistan, Mexico, India and Northern Ireland. 

And for Yassir El-Tahan, the chicken chain has been a long-standing tradition in his family while growing up on the northeast Avalon Peninsula.

"I grew up on Mary Brown's. Me and my dad and brother, every week after Friday prayer we would go to Mary Brown's. Since I was four years old, we started that tradition," El-Tahan told CBC News. 

"If my mom was working late and we were ordering fast food, Mary Brown's was the go-to. It has always kind of been that comfort food for me growing up."

But that tradition changed when El-Tahan met his wife, Saba, who, as he explains, follows a strict halal diet. 

Halal is Arabic for "lawful or permitted" and generally refers to what's allowed under Islamic law. What that means for food, El-Tahan said, is that it's raised and slaughtered in a humane way. 

"For her, that was very important. So, of course, for me that was very important," he said. 

"But at the same time, if I was going to go only halal, that meant I could not eat Mary Brown's, I could not have fast food. That's the ultimate sacrifice right there, not to be able to eat Mary Brown's."

Six years went by without a bite of Mary Brown's.

El-Tahan said he missed the restaurant so much he even considered opening his own franchise with a halal menu. Saba also campaigned for a wing restaurant in St. John's to offer halal on the menu and won. 

But a redevelopment of Memorial University's main food court in the university centre halted the franchise dreams. A new Mary Brown's Express opened up, and with it came a halal menu to better serve the growing international student community. 

Saba gave the good news to El-Tahan a week before his birthday.

"I had no idea, and she was very excited to tell me the news," El-Tahan said. 

"She said I started to cry. There's no evidence of that. Maybe my eyes welled up a little bit. I was a little excited."