Ranked by age

Brand age and franchise-program age are different facts. The first date marks the operating concept’s history; the second marks when the system began selling franchises. Capriotti’s says it opened in Wilmington in 1976, while its franchise program began in 1991. Wienerschnitzel’s official history dates the first hot-dog stand to 1961; the row records franchising from 1965. Those gaps describe years in which a format may have developed before outside operators joined.

A short gap can still be haste, and a long gap can still be a weak franchise. The legal franchisor may be newer than the consumer brand, a company may acquire and relaunch an older concept, or an international operator may enter the United States decades after opening elsewhere. The dates need Item 1 context before they can support a conclusion.

Oldest first is a paper trail. Döner Haus was founded in 2023 and has been franchising since 2024: six shops open in those three years, none closed, seven or more in construction, 55 franchise commitments. GDK was founded in 2017 and is closing US shops.

The order

Wienerschnitzel, 1961, franchising since 1965, 323 outlets in the May 2024 comparative study. Capriotti’s, 1976, franchising since 1991, 145 outlets in the same study. The Halal Guys, 1990, franchising since 2014, 93 outlets. Pepper Lunch, 1994, franchising since 1998, six US units in the study against a larger international claim on the operator’s own site. Shah’s Halal Food, 2005, no franchise-program year on file, 58 outlets at year-end 2023 in the 10 April 2024 FDD, none of them operating as franchises.

Then the 2010s: Dog Haus, 2010, franchising since 2013. German Doner Kebab, 2017, franchising since 2017. The Great Greek, 2017, franchising since 2018. bluTaco, 2017, franchising since 2018. Mad for Chicken, 2017, franchising since 2019. Crave Hot Dogs and BBQ, 2018, franchising since 2018. Doner Shack, 2020, franchising since 2024, on a founding year that is the date its US franchisor was organised as a Delaware company rather than the date a restaurant opened. Döner Haus, 2023, franchising since 2024, is the youngest founding in the directory: six shops open since then, none closed. 375° Chicken ‘n Fries has no founding year on file; it began franchising in 2023 and therefore does not sort on this table.

That last omission is deliberate. The ranking uses the founding year printed on the row. A missing founding date is left blank rather than inferred from the franchise-program year, a press release or the age of the franchisor entity. 375° still appears on system size, entry cost and Item 19.

What longevity shows

Surviving through many lease cycles and consumer shifts is meaningful operating history. The current agreement, current leadership and current unit economics still have to be read on their own. A 1960s founding date does not make a 2024 fee schedule old, and a familiar name does not replace review of the current disclosure.

Döner Haus’s record since a 2023 founding is six shops open, none closed, seven or more in construction. The founding year is a different column from that movement. Item 20’s outlet movement, litigation in Item 3, and conversations with current and former franchisees are the rest of what a founding year leaves out.

Headquarters is the location in the source behind the row, not necessarily the place where the menu concept first appeared. GDK’s US franchisor is in Auburn Hills, Michigan; the wider operator is associated with Glasgow. Pepper Lunch’s US row is Rolling Hills Estates, California, for a Japanese teppan concept founded in 1994. Döner Haus files from Miami Beach for a German format; the open shops are in New York and Los Angeles. Doner Shack files from Miami Beach for a UK format and as of 2026 is not selling US franchises. Age does not travel with headquarters, and international origin does not enlarge a US Item 20 table.

Unit counts retain their own measurement year. That means the age and size columns sometimes describe different snapshots, just as a 2023 filing and a 2026 filing do. Follow the profile to see the stated source before comparing two rows. This ranking answers “which documented concept is older?” It does not answer “which franchise is safer?” or “which one will perform better?”

Age, fees and exit rights do not move together

Wienerschnitzel is the oldest row and among the lower disclosed stacks (6%), with a 20-year term, no renewal right and no right to sell. Döner Haus is the youngest founding and opened six shops in the three years since, among the lower stacks (5% in the 2026 FDD), with a compact imbiss and an Item 19 that includes stores the company still operates. Those two facts do not make the brands peers. Crave, founded 2018, has a 10% stack and no Item 19. Great Greek, founded 2017, has a 10% stack, a 35-year term and an Item 19 that includes cost lines. Halal Guys, founded 1990, has a 9% stack, 93 outlets and no Item 19 in the study row.

The emerging versus established essay is the narrative version of this table. The term ranking shows that the oldest system is not the one with the longest grant — Great Greek is — and that the oldest system is the one whose study row records no sale right. Age is history. Contract terms are present tense.

Pepper Lunch remains the caution about global age. Founded 1994, six US units in the May 2024 study, operator claims of hundreds of restaurants across many countries. The US disclosure is the row. The international claim is a company statement on pepperlunchrestaurants.com.

375° is the caution about missing founded dates. Franchising since 2023, five outlets at year-end 2023, Item 19 on an affiliate income statement covering 2020–2023 across two corporate shops in the note. It belongs in the emerging conversation and not in this sort. Döner Haus, founded 2023 and franchising since 2024, does sort here: six shops open in three years, compact imbiss, 5% stack, Item 19 covering corporate stores and early franchised units. Same calendar neighborhood as 375°, and the one date 375° is missing is the one Döner Haus states.

Shah’s 2005 founding with no franchise-program year on file is the caution about licensed growth. The consumer brand is older than the franchise offer the 2024 FDD describes. Calling 2005 “established” without reading Item 20’s zero franchised outlets would be the same error as calling Pepper Lunch a 500-unit US system.

Founded	Brand	Franchising since	Why the dates can mislead
1961	Wienerschnitzel	1965	Oldest row; no sale right; no Item 7 in these files
1976	Capriotti’s	1991	Fifteen years of company history before the franchise program
1990	The Halal Guys	2014	Cart identity older than the franchise system; no Item 19 in the study
1994	Pepper Lunch	1998	Global age, six US units in the study
2005	Shah’s	—	Brand age with a licensed footprint, not a franchise count
2017	GDK, Great Greek, bluTaco, Mad for Chicken	2017–2019	Same founding decade, four different contracts
2023	Döner Haus	2024	Six shops in three years, 7+ building, 55 commitments; one year between concept and franchise offer

This ranking orders documented concept years for live US offerings. It does not order consumer fame.

The 2017 cluster is the other trap. GDK, Great Greek, bluTaco and Mad for Chicken share a founding year on file and almost nothing else: a five-outlet kebab restaurant minimum, a 35-year Greek grill, an indefinite taco host-location agreement, and a corporate-heavy Korean fried-chicken system. Sorting them as “2017 emerging brands” is a calendar coincidence. Read the category ranking and the matching essay after this table. Age is the first column. The contract is the rest of the row.

Wienerschnitzel franchised in 1965, Capriotti’s in 1991, Halal Guys in 2014, Dog Haus in 2013, Great Greek in 2018, Mad for Chicken in 2019, Crave in 2018, GDK in 2017, bluTaco in 2018, 375° in 2023, Döner Haus in 2024. Those franchise-program years are the second date. A concept can be old while the offering is new. Read both columns.

Shah’s has no franchise-program year on file. That blank is not 2014 or 2018 copied from a neighbor. 375° has no founding year. Missing dates stay missing. The emerging versus established essay is the narrative that keeps 1961, 2023, five units and 323 units from becoming a score.

Pepper Lunch’s 1994 founding with six US units in the May 2024 study remains the global-age caution on this page: an older concept year does not enlarge a dated domestic Item 20 count. Always read the year on the row; then read the current FDD.