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It was like only yesterday I was enjoying a juicy burger at Shake Shack on Madison Square Park. Waiting in line a well deserved 30 minutes, I devoured their tasty burgers in seconds… Now back in Lebanon, I thought why not go down again and enjoy the Beirut’s franchise. I remember enjoying it last time and I still don't understand why some people don’t like it much.
Shake Shack is a restaurant chain serving hamburgers, hot dogs, french fries, milkshakes, frozen custard and similar foods. The chain currently has twenty restaurants in the United States, eight of them in New York City. Additionally, there are currently nine international locations. The first Shake Shack, located in Madison Square Park, opened in July 2004. The restaurant was conceived and developed by Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group, which maintains restaurants in the Union Square area. The building in Madison Square Park was designed bySculpture in the Environment, an architectural and environmental design firm based in Lower Manhattan. Shake Shack was named "Best Burger 2005" by New York magazine. During the summer, the wait in line for service can stretch to over an hour, especially on weekends when the weather is pleasant.
Located on the large terrace up on Beirut City Centre is Shake Shack Beirut. It is an ultra modern space that boasts green and black colors lights, wood tables with the Shake Shack logo engraved in each, and the large menu board that welcomes you to start your order. The place is spacious and fresh, with walls covered with wood strips and metal… There’s a lot of details to enjoy as well as the nice music that will put you in a upbeat mood.
The place described: A large, long and high door welcomes you. An inner space, open and relaxed is well lit and beautifully decorated. An outside seating area is shared with the other restaurants of the Beirut City Centre. A space decorated with beige, grey, black and light green colours. A granite grey sparkling floor add a refined touch of finesse. To the left, the full menu is displayed on the wall that you can browse while waiting for your turn. Green, beige and black wooden chairs fill the space that looks more like a restaurant than a simple fast food. Thick real wood tables with the logo engraved on are very classy and look neat. Facing the entrance, a long wall is covered with different squares, some painted in grey while others are made of real wood. A long black bench follows it from side to side. A long bar separates the kitchen from the seating area. A busy staff awaits to take your order. Different alleys of green grass decorate the restaurant and separate the tables one from the other. This adds a fresh touch making you feel that the food is light. A long metallic stripe over the ceiling, displays the menu main items At the cashier (order here, cold-line, pickup here).
I tried three burgers and fries:
- The ShackBurger: A beautiful looking burger where super tender bun is filled with a slice of tomato, lettuce and cheese. Inside you’ll find two layers of meat grilled a-la-minute, juicy and fatty meat inside it. Extremely juicy, the burger is way better than I had imagined. Maybe not as the perfect as the one I had in New York but it’s good enough for someone who likes Burgers a L'Americaine. Fatty it is, better not compare it with local competitors to judge it better. The best part is the secret sauce!
- The SmokeShack: A single piece of meat, a layer of cheese, interesting flavored veal bacon with its smoke and firm consistency in the same tender bun. Lovely sauce, the juicy and pleasantly fatty meat... Some chopped cherry pepper as well as the signature Shack Sauce. The sauce has a base layer of mayo, ketchup, and yellow ballpark mustard, and a slew of flavor-boosting ingredients that yield the same unctuous fattiness of the all-time great secret sauces—but with a bit more spice.
- The Shroom Burger: A burger with a chunky piece of fried mushroom and cheese. A vegetarian kind of thing, not mine. My mistake, I should have ordered it with meat.
The fries are good, very close to the ones I enjoyed in New York. They must be eaten hot on the spot, because 5 minutes afterwards they turn into something hard and cold.
The bad: Meat doesn't look appetizing, and I believe this is the main thing pushing people away. I'll work on fixing it's outer color and shape.
The good: Now I can give my feedback after visiting New York's location and I believe they're not far one from the other. What makes this burger special is its 700Kcal hidden within, its fattiness, juiciness and special ecret sauce.
I have heard a lot of people talk about how much they dislike the place and I honestly expected Shake Shack to be bad. But it wasn't at all. For an American street style burger, Shake Shack is good. Maybe it’s not something we Lebanese are used to but one can't deny the good side; its taste and quality of ingredients.
