Dining Out: Shake Shack

This is my 16th and final post from my New York City trip! I hope you have enjoyed reading these posts as much as I have enjoyed writing them.

When I first started visiting New York regularly (summer 2006) I always walked by Shake Shack in Madison Square Park. My cousin lived just three blocks away and we passed it constantly walking to and from other places. I would always say, "We have to try that sometime!" but we never did.

While I was in the city on this trip, I was attending a conference for work and one of the featured speakers was Danny Meyer, the founder and creator of Shake Shack (@dhmeyer on Twitter if you want to follow him). He was a fantastic presenter and I was hanging on his every word. Of all the stories and advice he shared there was one comment that really stuck with me. He said that each time he opens a new Shake Shack location, that exact location has to have "Shackness." In his words, "When I go scout a new place, I sit down, imagining myself as the diner with their burger, fries and shake and I ask myself - does location make me feel relaxed? When I look around am I taking in scenery that feels amazing, inspiring and like classic New York? Does this location help me escape from my life for just five minutes and have a genuine, uplifting experience? That's Shackness."

Wow. After that comment, I am a Danny Meyer believer! I left the conference that day determined to make it to Shake Shake on this trip. No excuses.

Lucky for me, on the second to last day of my trip I was staying with a friend who lives just a few streets away from a Shake Shack! Monday night (MLK Day) we zipped up our winter coats and headed over.

This particular location of Shake Shack is at 77th Street and Columbus Avenue, directly across the street from the Museum of Natural History (Shackness!).

When you first walk in there is a menu board right in the entry way so you can decide what you want before you get in line. I was impressed by how much of the menu is devoted to ice cream!

Shake Shack offers something called a "concrete" which is basically a thick milk shake. Each Shake Shack location has flavors based on their location. For example, in this location one of the choices is the "Natural History Crunch-stellation."

They also have a custard calendar! I am telling you, this is my kind of place! We were there on a Monday and the flavor was Cinnamon Cream Cheese.

We made a game plan and hopped in the line. The set up for ordering felt kind of like a mall food court, but hey, if it's efficient for them, I'll let it slide.

While in line I noticed the Shake Shack gear including two baby onesies that were just too adorable! One said "Small fry" and one said "I'm Crying, Insert Burger". I have a nine month old baby cousin, so I'm always on the look out!

After you order you are handed a buzzer so you can claim your order when it's ready. The buzzer says, "When I'm shakin' come on up to the shack!"

At this particular Shake Shack you can stand at a counter that overlooks the museum (notice the burger design on the counter).

Or you can sit in the atrium. When the weather is nice, all of these windows are open. I smile just thinking about that!

Our buzzer started to shake so we went up to the shack to claim our goodies. They give you your meal on a tray, cafeteria style.

My friend's boyfriend ordered the Shacky Road concrete (a cute play on Rocky Road), the french fries with cheese sauce and two Shackburgers. This food looks so good it almost looks fake, right?

The concrete was so delicious! It had chocolate truffles in it!

The cheese fries were an awesome, side dish creation. The combination of the crispy, crinkle cut french fries and the creamy cheese sauce made each bite taste like mashed potatoes!

My friend's boyfriend ordered two Shackburgers which are burger patty, American cheese, lettuce, tomato and Shacksauce on a fluffy bun.

I ordered the vegetarian option, the 'Shroom burger, which is a cheese stuffed, fried mushroom. Yeah.

I took one bite and here is what happened:

In a word, amazing. This was one of the best, most delicious vegetarian options I have ever had at a burger place!

To go with our meals, my friend ordered the Arnold Palmer which was the perfect ratio of lemonade to tea and came with a heathly heaping of ice to keep it chilled.

In the spirit of this fun outing, I ordered a root beer float! It came in tall cup and the ice cream was already beginning to melt into the root beer by the time I took my tray to our table.

Because I had a long straw the first half of the drink tasted like just root beer (which was perfect to go with my burger) and the second half tasted like a root beer milk shake! It was soda shop perfection.

Shake Shack is such a blast. The spirit of the place is just straight up fun and as Danny said, all of the locations are scouted and approved for their Shackness.

Though I can technically cross this off my New York City "to-do" list, I still want to experience the Madison Square Park location in the summer.

Have you ever been to Shake Shack? Could you feel the Shackness?