Shake it up, baby.

As I mentioned before, I recently moved in with the ERL. We are now proud residents of the Murray Hill/Gramercy/Flatiron district. Needless to say, we are within smelling distance of Shake Shack -- located in lovely Madison Square Park.  (Be sure to check out the giant head sculpture. Zoo Weee Mama!)

From 2000-2004, I worked on 26th street--on the north side of Madison Square Park. I was there the day Shake Shack opened and sampled Danny Meyer's meaty wares -- I was honestly not impressed. As the weeks passed and the lines grew, necessitating a webcam monitoring the real time status of the drooling masses, I grew increasingly puzzled. "What is wrong with you idiots?!? You're waiting on line for an hour for mediocre, tiny burgers! Terrible hot dogs! Soylent green is made of people....PEOPLE!!!"

Well, I take it all back. Shake Shack is awesome and delicious. Whether it's because I've grown and matured in the subsequent years or the burgers have improved--I'm loving it now. ERL and I went last night (at 9:30 on a Saturday night the wait was just about 30 minutes from order to cramming juicy deliciousness into your meathole) to reaffirm that it was not a fluke.

So in words and pictures, here's how it all...shook down (ERL says I "try too hard" on this blog. I'll give it to her this time.):

So, if you haven't been to Shake Shack, be forewarned: you will WAIT in line and you will love it.  If you want a concrete (frozen custard and mix-ins), booze, or drinks -- go to the B-Line and you'll save yourself some pain. But if you are here for the main attraction, burgers necessitate that you queue up like the rest of us. Hey, at least it's not the DMV, right? You get a tasty treat at the end of it all, so quit the complaining.


Here I am being a moron and modeling my belly pre-Shack consumption. Also showing off my Boba Fett t-shirt (from Old Navy). I'm a purist and I like my Mandalorian armor to be primarily in shades of green -- but the shirt is pretty awesome and I will abide by the non-traditional color scheme. Heck, the Fett is anything but traditional, am I right or am I right? *crickets chirp for the lonely nerd* 


I'm lucky to have ERL. Her facial expressions are often hilarious. She makes waiting in line fun(ny). Here she is looking puzzled when I told her that I didn't need to get a frozen custard. "Huh, Tubby doesn't want dessert? Really? And put your belly away. You look ridiculous."

In any case, when the wait JUST TO ORDER at Shake Shack is less than an hour, it's a good day. Day or night, you will often find a stream of yuppies here. You may have to fight for a table or a bench, but be patient, young Padawan and it will be yours. The lights do make it seem like a fairy kingdom (of magical meat) and the setting couldn't be lovelier (for secret sauce). Look at these pics and tell me it doesn't look like a slice of (ground beef) heaven.  

We ended up ordering Shack Burgers (with cheese, lettuce, tomato, and secret Shack sauce), a Shack-ago dog (with cucumber, pickles, onions, peppers, tomato, celery salt), fries, and drinks. You can check out their full menu here.

After you order, they give you a pager that lights up and shakes (get it! love it!) when your order is ready. Here we are with lucky 77's. ERL is showing off her manicure and new gold nail polish. *BLING!* Holla.

When the pager goes off, the adrenaline kicks in.  You rush over to the pick-up window and you genuinely feel like you have been CHOSEN. And in a few short moments, you've got the steamy, juicy, salty, perfection that is a Shack Burger. (Yeah, they might be a little small, but order a double or just get two burgers!)

Ok, ok. The Shack-ago Dog wasn't exactly "write home to your mama" good. I would probably skip the hot dogs here altogether because the best ones are from any of the "Papaya" (Grey's , Mike's, Papaya Dog) establishments in the city. (Ask for them "well done" and you will get a grilled, crispy, juicy tube of mystery meat.)

A perfect medium-rare. Don't you dare ask for well done (that's for hot dogs at Papaya's, remember? I just told you!)! DON'T!!! 

(On a sidenote, we met up with E and P shortly afterwards. Got drinks at Live Bait on 23rd. I didn't tell them about the blog and thought best to leave them out for now. But "hey guys!" if you are reading this. We had fun, huh?)

In conclusion: Shake Shack is a great place to get some good food and a fun place to take your significant other or a group of friends.

"Great date night, right?"

"Yes, burgers make me happy. But you are still a dork for taking all these pictures for your fatboy blog."








GeekOmnivore score: JUICY BURGERIFIC!