It was on a recent sunny day, when I bit into the ‘Shroom burger with a deep-fried, cheese-filled portobello mushroom between the lettuce, tomato, and burger bun, that it hit me: The Shake Shack, the burger and milkshake stand in Manhattan’s Madison Square Park operated by famed restaurateur Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group, is the quintessential New York institution. If you want to understand the city’s cultural anthropology, go spend a lunch hour standing in line there for a $3.23 hamburger. You’ll find:

New York is egalitarian. The Wall Street types from the nearby offices of Credit Suisse First Boston are standing in the same lunch line as dyed-haired college students with backpacks and a woman whose plastic name tag identifies her as a service clerk at Walgreens.

New York is family friendly – even outside the expected places. Nearby, mothers with children in Maclaren strollers and Bugaboos line the benches of the park. Anyone who still is laboring under the impression that children only exist in Park Slope, the Upper East and West Sides, and the New Jersey, Westchester, Long Island, and Connecticut suburbs should come check out Madison Square Park.

New York imports the best from other places. The Shake Shack features a Chicago-style hot dog. No nativist insecurities for New Yorkers.

New York accommodates differences. The “frequently asked questions” sign at the Shake Shack includes “What are your vegetarian options?”

Up to a point. Overheard inside the Shake Shack – a directive to the order takers: “No temperatures on fries. They are what they are.” Those who like their fries burnt to the point where not only the outside but also the inside is crispy can eat somewhere else. My fries were cooked to light-golden perfection.

New Yorkers are cheap. Did I mention the hamburger costs $3.23?

Up to a point. The wine list at the Shake Shack – who ever heard of a wine list at a burger and milkshake stand? – includes a $38 half-bottle of Shafer Napa Valley Cabernet. A $38 half-bottle adds up to a $76 bottle of wine, which one doesn’t often see a non-New Yorker washing down a $3.23 hamburger with. Another way of putting this is that New Yorkers love a bargain but aren’t afraid to splurge.

New York is capitalist. A hamburger stand in a city park in another city might be manned by surly civil servants serving frozen, mass-produced burgers and watery shakes. Yet at least since Robert Moses put the Tavern on the Green in Central Park, the city has had a tradition of contracting out park services to private concessionaires who end up doing a better job than the government would.

But it believes in private philanthropy.

A portion of the proceeds from the Shake Shack go to the Madison Square Park Conservancy, a private, non-profit organization that helps keep Madison Square Park – a city park – clean and vibrant.

New Yorkers like to indulge. The Bloomberg administration’s anti-tobacco and anti-fat efforts notwithstanding, New York is a city that likes to have fun. It’s full of Broadway theaters and nightclubs and places, like the Shake Shack, where you can eat artery-clogging food that tastes good. Despite that, there weren’t that many fat people to be seen on line. Because…

New York is a walking city. Californians guiltily indulge by slinking out in their cars to the drive-though In-and-Out Burger or Fat Burger. New Yorkers walk. There’s no parking lot or valet parking at the Shake Shack. People just walk up. There is a subway stop nearby.

New Yorkers are not afraid of crowds. If you don’t like crowds, move to South Dakota. Here in New York City, we have the jam-packed cars of the Lexington Avenue subway line, the clogged sidewalks of Times Square, and the half-hour long, 40-person line to order at the Shake Shack on a sunny day at lunchtime.

But we also like to beat them. I saw one woman wait for half an hour in the Shake Shack line, then summon her boyfriend by cellphone from a nearby office building when the food was ready. He got the burger without the wait.

And we don’t want to be just a number. They call your order when it’s ready at the Shake Shack by name, not number. Crowds are one thing. Total anonymity is another.

New York embraces change. If everything were up to the die-hard historic preservationists and never-change-anything types, Mr. Meyer probably would have never been allowed to build the Shake Shack, a new structure, in the middle of a historic park.

Up to a point. The signage on the Shake Shack is in a style that evokes lettering on other classic New York buildings like the Port Authority piers on the Hudson and the American Airlines hangar at La Guardia Airport.

The change leads to economic growth and job creation. At least 13 employees were working at the Shake Shack on a recent lunchtime shift, and the place probably generates tens of thousands of dollars in sales tax revenue. All on what used to be a run-down blighted park where the economic activity was in non-tax generating fields like drugs and prostitution.

It might seem like a stretch to attribute the appearance of the Shake Shack to the entrepreneurial dynamism that makes New York City what it is. France is basically socialist and they have good cheese there, too. But if there were a Shake Shack in Paris you’d probably need a reservation, and the workers would be on strike. And if there were a Shake Shack in Paris, New Yorkers might be a little less interested in the one here.

We like knowing New York is a one-of-a-kind place. There was no wait at the Wendy’s across East 23rd Street from the Shake Shack, and there was a half hour wait at the Shake Shack. You can eat at Wendy’s anywhere. But the Shake Shack is only here.