I'm not a risk taker. I always wear a helmet on my bike, I hate roller coasters, and I wait until the signal changes to cross the street. But whenever I watch Hot Ones, in which celebrities are interviewed as they fight their way through servings of increasingly hot chicken wings, I always think to myself, I could do that. How hot can it be? With Shake Shack's new Hot Ones menu, I was able to put myself to the test.
What really brings the spice to this menu is the Spicy ShackSauce, which features both Hot Ones Classic Hot Sauce and The Last Dab: Apollo, which clocks in at 2.5 million Scovilles, according to Shake Shack. That sauce is added to a burger, a chicken sandwich, and a dipping sauce for cheese fries. For the risk takers among us, packs of The Last Dab: Apollo are available on the side, so customers can taste it straight. I decided to take that risk.
On its own, the Spicy ShackSauce has a strong kick with the great flavor we've come to expect from the signature condiment. The heat from the sauce lingers, and it left my mouth wavering with a slight vibration that comes from numbing ingredients. This is easily one of the hottest sauces I've ever received from a fast food establishment that doesn't typically deal in spice. I was suddenly regretting my declaration to my coworkers the day before that I would indeed try the very hottest hot sauce on its own.
Shake Shack's best kept secret is its chicken sandwich, which is juicy and flavorful every time, making it a much better vehicle for this particular sauce. Each sandwich is topped with bacon and monterey jack cheese, but could also use a pickle or onion, something to add some crunch and texture to each bite.
With the cheese fries, Shake Shack has replicated the winning formula of its Buffalo menu. These fries rule, and whether you dip them into the Spicy ShackSauce or not, there's a really pleasant spice from the Aleppo pepper dust. That incorporation of dry spice adds a nuanced layer to the flavor profile of the spice, rather than just elevating its heat level. Please bury me with Shake Shack cheese fries.
Fans of spice will be satisfied with the heat level of the Spicy ShackSauce, though it might be worth asking for extra on the side or on your sandwich if you want to make sure you get full sauce coverage. And if you want to kick it up even more, well, there's that fiery little packet of The Last Dab: Apollo.
The sauce packet itself costs $1.99 to add to your meal, and is bigger and sleeker than your average condiment package. There's an opportunity for you to get a nice big dab, if you please. But from my experience, you won't need one. The flavor is what comes through first, a nice spice from the Apollo pepper, which was bred with both flavor and heat in mind. I tried it first on a dry fry and was so bold as to think it wasn't that bad, so I took a drop from the packet straight. I flew too close to the sun.
If you're looking for a hot and spicy fast food bite, you've found it. This is the one. It's exciting to see national chains lean into this quest for heat and find a way to preserve great flavor as they do it. Just don't forget to add a milkshake to your order for when you want relief from feeling the burn.
While Shake Shack has become an international burger powerhouse, let's not forget it all started in NYC right in Madison Square Park. The fast-food chain is still a cult favorite for loyal New Yorkers looking for the best cheap burgers in town or a next-level milkshake. Hell, we're even fans of their Chicago-style hot dogs. There's so much to choose from, so we went ahead and ranked their entire menu to make your next visit a little easier.
While many run to the ShackBurger, the Smoke Shack is where it's at. Smoky bacon sings with the smashed beef patty, while spicy and tangly pickled peppers cut through all that richness. It's a pretty perfect burger.
It's not uncommon to find us lined up at Shake Shack just waiting for something sweet. A scoop of their velvety, dense frozen custard will convince you that their ice cream skills match their ability to flip burgers.
Baby, you're so classic. This beauty features a smashed Pat LaFreida patty, American cheese, lettuce, tomato and special sauce all on a potato roll. It's an uncomplicated burger that we could eat every day. The only question is: Do you want a single or a double?
After waxing poetic about the custard, it's no surpirse we're fans of their concretes, which take scoops of frozen custard and blends it with toppings like pie or chocolate chunks into a thick creation that'll end your binge on a sweet note.
The Shack Stack creates a monster hybrid of the ShackBurger and the 'Shroom Burger, which means it's all of the wonder of their classic burger plus a deep fried portobello mushroom filled with cheese. The result is a perfect blend of textures all packed with umami richness.
Shake Shack started as a hot dog cart in Madison Square Park, so it's no surprise that their Chicago-style dogs can stand up to their burgers. They've got all the topping with relish, onion, cucumber, pickle, tomato, pickled pepper, celery salt and mustard.
Since its founding, it has been one of the fastest-growing food chains, eventually becoming a public company filing for an initial public offering of stock in late 2014. The offering priced on January 29, 2015; the initial price of its shares was at $21, immediately rising by 123% to $47 on their first day of trading.[5][6][7][8]
In 2000, New York City began the rebuilding of Madison Square Park, which had fallen into a state of disrepair and misuse. As part of the redevelopment, restaurateur Danny Meyer helped spearhead the creation of the Madison Square Park Conservancy to help redevelop it. One of the first things the Conservancy did in its goal to improve the park was to host an art exhibit called "I
In 2004, the city began taking bids to operate a new kiosk-style restaurant within the park; Meyer outlined his idea for the space, and opened the first Shake Shack in July 2004. From its beginning the restaurant was not designed to be a chain; it was intended to be a single shop location designed specifically for New York City. However, as the original location's sales continued to grow, the group realized that there was a market for expansion.[10]
Since its opening, Shake Shack has grown to be the largest part of the USHG's portfolio. Its average store revenue of US$4 million is more than twice that of McDonald's average store revenue within the United States.[11] Its popularity is such that in the summer at its original location, the wait in line for service can stretch to over an hour, especially on weekends when the weather is pleasant. A webcam on the restaurant's web page shows the current line in real time.[11][12]
In June 2010, Shake Shack opened its first restaurant outside of New York City at the Lincoln Road Mall in Miami Beach's South Beach neighborhood.[13][14][15] In April 2017 the location completed a month-long renovation that added 586 square feet of space, bringing its seating capacity to 106.[16]
On July 12, 2010, Shake Shack restaurants were opened in the Theater District[17] and the Upper East Side.[18][19] The Upper East Side location's opening was significant because it "lifted" East 86th Street, an urban shopping district which had fallen on hard times; the location had been vacant, and even when occupied, it was described by a neighbor as "never anything good there...dingy and dilapidated...almost an eyesore."[18]
In July 2011, it was announced that Shake Shack had reached a deal with the MTA to open a location in the lower level of Grand Central Terminal.[20] This project was delayed because the tenant occupying the space Shake Shack was to take over, Mexican eatery Zcalo, refused to vacate after the expiration of their lease and filed suit, arguing that the "bidding process (for retail space in Grand Central) is corrupted."[21] The suit was dismissed and Zcalo appealed. In October 2012 Zcalo filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.[22] In early May 2013, Zcalo vacated the space, and the new outlet opened for business on October 5, 2013.[23]
By August 2014, Shake Shack outlets had begun operating in California, Connecticut, Delaware, Washington, D.C., Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia, in addition to the New York locations.[25] That month, reports surfaced that the company was preparing to go public with an IPO and was discussing an underwriting with a number of investment banks, including J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.[25][26]
On January 29, 2015, Shake Shack priced its IPO at $21 per share. On the morning of January 30, 2015, it began trading on the NYSE at $47 per share under the ticker symbol SHAK. In April 2015, shares hit prices of $72, and hit a high of about $90 in May 2015.[27] In its IPO filing, the company stated that it planned to expand its domestic footprint to 450 company-operated stores. While no end date was given for that expansion, the company indicated its intention to open at least 10 restaurants each fiscal year, though it later amended that target to 12 a year and then again later in 2016 to 14 stores a year, a goal that would result in a total of 450 stores in approximately 25 years.[28] Later that May, Shake Shack filed for a trademark for the term "chicken shack" leading to speculation that the company would serve chicken sandwiches.[29] The company temporarily introduced chicken sandwiches to its Brooklyn branches on July 7, 2015.[30] In January 2016, Shake Shack introduced chicken sandwiches across locations in the United States, having previously started serving them at all Brooklyn Shake Shack locations.[31]
In November 2016, the first Houston, Texas, location opened inside the Galleria; by March 2017, another opened inside Minute Maid Park in Downtown Houston, with another to open there in August 2019, the 5th overall in the city. The city's 3rd opened at Rice Village in March 2018. By December, the city's 4th opened in Montrose district. In mid-December 2016, Delaware opened its first in Newark. In February 2017, the first Michigan location was opened in downtown Detroit.[33] A second Michigan location in Troy opened on October 25, 2017. On May 10, 2017, Shake Shack opened their first Kentucky location at The Summit at Fritz Farm in Lexington.[34] That June, the company announced a location would open in Charlotte, North Carolina, in late 2017, becoming the first Shake Shack in the Carolinas.[35] California's 5 locations were all in L.A. County, until the 6th had opened in San Diego on October 20, 2017 at Westfield UTC. The other San Diego location opened in Mission Valley in late 2017,[36] as did a South Bay location in El Segundo in October.[37]
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