Serious Eats
Awake Shack 2007
Every year since the summer of 2004, a certain segment of burger-loving New Yorkers has engaged in ritualistic madness—waiting in an hour-plus line on opening day of the Shake Shack. Today was the unofficial opening, which might have explained the short line at 1:05 p.m., when the Serious Eats crew went to check things out. (Officially, the Shack opens on the first day of spring—March 21 this year).
Also each year, a certain segment of grousing New Yorkers, weary of the hype, has engaged in "Shacklash." The burgers are good there, folks like us say, but are they worth the long, long wait? I tend to avoid the joint at peak hours, but Serious Eats overlord Ed Levine checked the live Shack Cam and convinced Alaina and me to go. And, as editor of A Hamburger Today, I felt duty-bound to make the run.
Unfortunately, I couldn't eat a burger there. As I've mentioned earlier on AHT, I gave up red meat for Lent. So damn if I can't have a Shackburger. (This self-deprivation may explain my earlier-than-usual onset of Shacklash this year.)
Anyway, the rest of the Serious Eats crew dug in to the salty-crusted meaty goodness. And speaking of the salty-crusted meaty goodness, if you couldn't taste it, you could certainly smell it a good 20 feet or so from the order windows. It was tempting, indeed.
The new technology that Eater first reported on, the little vibrating pagers (right), worked like a charm. As I told Gothamist earlier today, "I think the new tech things are great. They'll go a long way to alleviating the pile-up around the pick-up window. And, instead of waiting to hear your name—while secretly worrying that someone will identity-thieve your order—you now have a secure wireless burger-notification system. Bravo!"
Plus, the magic wands allowed the Serious Eats crew the luxury of staking out a table and relaxing with some chit-chat while we waited. While I posed with the burger-pager (right), Richard Coraine (to my right in the photo), partner and COO of Union Square Hospitality Group (the Shack's parent company), approached Ed and the two started talkin' burgers, fries, and dogs.
Some nuggets from today's sojourn:
- Coraine says the folks at USHG tried 32 kinds of frozen french fries before they settled on those now being served
- The Shack gave out chocolate custard to the hearty folks waiting in line (right)
- The steamed-and-then-griddled hot dogs (which were definitely better) were inspired by a trip to Birmingham, Alabama, that USHG's Coraine and Meyer took. While there, noted chef Frank Stitt (Highlands Bar and Grill) took them to Pete's Famous Hot Dogs downtown, where Pete's has been making hot dogs that way for since 1915
- The Shack no longer has kiddie cones, so you can't even pretend to practice portion control any more when you order frozen custard
- The buzzer system seemed to work
- The place needs coffee or hot chocolate until the weather warms up (and will need it once it gets cold again in fall)
The fries were much better than what they were serving last year. Mr. Coraine pointed out that the Shack made the switch ahead of the trans-fat ban in New York City. These are organic, artificial-trans-fat-free fries, and they were noticeably darker, more airy, and more crisp (without being crunchy) than last year's model.
As for the burgers, lemme ask Ed ... "They were good. I wish I had ordered mine medium-rare, but they don't make them medium-rare, anyway. They had the crust, they had the salt. What more do you want? Everything else is punctuation."