Danny Meyer’s Concrete Take on Shake Shack’s Latest Outpost

Burger lovers on the Upper West Side have been buzzing with anticipation all summer for the opening of the second outpost of Shake Shack, restaurateur Danny Meyer’s perennially popular burger stand in Madison Square Park, open since 2004. Earlier this year, rumors had the opening date of the new restaurant, at 77th Street and Columbus Avenue, pegged to the beginning of October; now, mid-October seems more likely. When asked about opening dates throughout the summer, various figures at the Union Square Hospitality Group (the company that oversees all of Mr. Meyer’s restaurants) declined to provide specifics.Why the elusiveness? “We’re big believers in not overpromising and underdelivering,” Mr. Meyer said in an interview last week. “We really want to give our team a chance to practice before we open the doors. The other side of that coin is that the minute we open the doors, we’re fairly confident there will be a lot of people who want to be among the first to stand in line. And we don’t want to disappoint people.”“It’s not a matter of secrecy,” he added. “We don’t have a secret date up our sleeves. We’re literally playing it by ear.”For those devotees who will be the first in that opening line, there are a few new additions to the Shake Shack menu to look forward to. New concretes (a type of thick frozen custard) include the Natural History Crunchstellation (made of vanilla custard, malt, chocolate, caramel, and hot fudge), inspired by the Museum of Natural History, which is soon to be the Shack’s newest neighbor. A portion of the proceeds of this concrete will go back to the museum. Other concretes include the Shacky Road (chocolate custard, chocolate, marshmallow, and almonds) and the Upper West Slide (vanilla custard, strawberry puree, banana, and shortbread cookies).There’s also the matter of handling those Upper West Side crowds once they actually get off the line and enter the restaurant. “It’s a challenge,” Mr. Meyer said of expanding space at the Columbus Avenue location, which used to be the New Orleans-themed Jacques-Imo’s Cafe. “We have a fair number of seats within the space, and there will be seats in the existing enclosed sidewalk café. There will also be a second dining room: We excavated the basement, so we’ll have a dining room with further seats in the basement that will also double as a place for people to have birthday parties, private parties, whatever.”Mr. Meyer admitted that it took time for him to be convinced that the city needed another Shake Shack. “This is the first time we’ve done anything for a second time after 23 years of trying to do one thing well once. I am not generally the greatest engine of growth in our company, because I really believe in honing and refining and working at something,” he said.But he changed his mind when his partners reminded him of how well his subsequent restaurants have done, ever since the opening of Union Square Café in 1985. When the decision was made to open another Shake Shack, the location of the outpost wasn’t chosen from a particular comparison of neighborhoods. “Randy Garutti, who is our managing partner, committed himself fully to Shake Shack about a year and a half ago,” Mr. Meyer said. “Randy happens to live two blocks away from this site, and the landlord of this space, I believe, was his landlord in a previous apartment. And he came in one day and said, ‘Look, now that we are convinced to open a second Shake Shack, why wouldn’t we want one two blocks from my house, where I can really keep a very, very close eye on it as we grow?’ And then it dawned on us that a huge following of people for 23 years have come down to one or more of our restaurants. We’ve got some really good friends who live in that area. Why not do it there?”Does Mr. Meyer feel any pressure to replicate the success he’s seen at the Madison Square Park location? “Absolutely,” he said. “I’m completely aware going into this that the magic that has contributed to the original Shake Shack — by virtue of being a beautiful, stand-alone building right in the middle of the remarkable setting that is Madison Square Park — is a major contributor to why people love Shake Shack. It’s a major contributor to why New Yorkers, who are always in a hurry, are choosing daily to stand in line for up to an hour to get a cheeseburger and a frozen custard concrete.”Considering the financial crisis that’s currently sweeping the country, Mr. Meyer mentioned that opening another Shake Shack was perhaps a better decision than going down another culinary track. And — because burgers are an ideal comfort food — the timing of the opening might not be better.“I think we’re incredibly fortunate with our timing because I would not want to be opening a luxury restaurant next month,” Mr. Meyer said. “But I’m delighted to be opening a place that makes people feel good about being in New York. It’s the right thing for the right time.”

Danny Meyer’s Concrete Take on Shake Shack’s Latest Outpost

Danny Meyer’s Concrete Take on Shake Shack’s Latest Outpost

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