Shake Shack

An art project with hot dogs

In 2001, the Madison Square Park Conservancy in Manhattan was reviving a neglected park and hosted an art installation. Restaurateur Danny Meyer's team set up a hot dog cart to support it. The cart was such a hit that it returned for several summers, and in 2004 a permanent kiosk opened in the park.

The menu

Shake Shack's ShackBurger is a smashed patty with cheese, lettuce, tomato and ShackSauce on a soft potato bun. The menu also features crinkle-cut fries, chicken sandwiches, hot dogs and frozen custard, a dense, creamy ice cream made with egg yolks, used in its shakes and concretes, which are custard blended with mix-ins.

The chain takes pride in hospitality from Danny Meyer's fine dining background, which shaped its approach to service.

Lines around the block

For years the original park kiosk was famous for long lines, with people checking a webcam to see how busy it was before heading over. Expansion began in New York, then across the US and abroad, often in high-profile city locations.

Better burger boom

Shake Shack went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2015. Along with Five Guys and regional chains, it showed that customers would pay more for a fast but higher-quality burger. The original kiosk still operates in Madison Square Park, which the chain continues to support.

Menu guide

Classics include the ShackBurger, the SmokeShack with bacon and chopped cherry peppers, the Shack Stack with a burger and a crispy fried mushroom filled with cheese, and the Chick'n Shack sandwich. Concretes are named after local landmarks in many cities, so menus differ slightly from place to place. Dogs get a special menu item too: the Pooch-ini, a dog treat with peanut butter sauce.

Did you know? Shake Shack's crinkle-cut fries were briefly replaced with fresh-cut fries in 2013, but fans missed the old style so much that the crinkles came back in 2014.

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