Shake Shack is a restaurant chain serving hamburgers, hot dogs, french fries, milkshakes and similar foods. There are currently twelve restaurants within the chain, seven in New York City.
The first Shake Shack located in Madison Square Park opened in July 2004. The restaurant was conceived and developed by Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group, which maintains restaurants in the Union Square area. The building in Madison Square Park was designed by Sculpture in the Environment, an architectural and environmental design firm based in Lower Manhattan.
Shake Shack was named "Best Burger 2005" by New York magazine.[1] During the summer, the wait in line for service can stretch to over an hour, especially on weekends when the weather is pleasant. Their website has a webcam which shows the current line in real time. In 2007 the Shack began selling wine.
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In 2008, a Shake Shack was opened on the Upper West Side.
Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets baseball team in Queens, features a Shake Shack concession stand, which opened along with the ballpark in 2009. On top of the Citi Field Shake Shack sits the model of the New York City skyline that used to sit on top of the scoreboard at Shea Stadium.[2]
In 2010, Shake Shack restaurants were opened in the Theater District[3] and the Upper East Side.[4][5] The Upper East Side location's opening was significant because it "lifted" East 86th Street, an urban shopping district which had fallen on hard times; the location had been vacant, and even when occupied it was described by a neighbor as "never anything good there ... dingy and dilapidated ... almost an eyesore."[4]
Shake Shack locations opened at Battery Park City in Lower Manhattan and the Fulton Street Mall in Brooklyn in 2011[6] and is scheduled to be open in Grand Central Terminal.[7]
In 2010, Shake Shack opened its first restaurant outside of New York City, in Miami Beach's South Beach neighborhood. Danny Meyer has stated his intention to expand the chain throughout Miami. Also, Meyer helped opened a Shake Shack that summer at the Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York. Shake Shack has expanded to Washington, D.C., opening its first location there in Dupont Circle in May 2011.[8] On June 14, 2011, Shake Shack opened a concession stand at Nationals Park, home of the Washington Nationals baseball team. [9] There is also a Shake Shack in Westport, Connecticut. Shake Shack also plans to expand into Long Island, opening a store in Westbury, NY in 2012.
In April 2011, Shake Shack opened its first international location at Mall of the Emirates in Dubai. In July 2011, a Shake Shack opened at The Avenues mall in Kuwait City.[10]