Manhattan’s Shake Shack Puts the Local in the Burger
If you’ve been to Shake Shack then you know- the line around the block is worth it. but did you know they are expanding? Any successful restaurant is going to expand, and in the burger world, that typically means franchising and building the same restaurant model in each new location. For David Meyer and the Shake Shack, on the other hand, the expansion, while still going global, will stay localized and community-friendly.
Shake Shack prides itself and its premium burgers on being part of the community
The New York Times did a great feature on Danny Meyer’s sidewalk gourmet brainchild, and describes going into a Shake Shack as entering “a neighborhood-centered, urban-fantasy version of a burger roadhouse.”
Great visual, and the key take-away is neighborhood-centered. Serving hamburgers to Americans is nothing new- but the way Meyer and his partners do it and their plans to gently expand is.
Shake Shack Expansion Plans
Meyer’s expansion plans are purposefully calculated- they will not franchise- and focused on community and localization. His vision is for new Shake Shacks to become members of the communities and neighborhoods they are built in.
“We hope that each new Shake Shack can become both a citizen of, and mirror of, their communities,” he says.
After 6 years at their flagship The Union Square Hospitality Group location and with a total of 3 New York City locations, they are only now are they pushing for expansion (after resisting countless expansion offers (including one for a reality TV show).
Contrast that with the 5 Guys Burgers and Fries that started franchising in 2003 and has 535 locations nationwide already- it’s obvious that Meyer wants to hold the brand and the vision close. It seems, in fact, that the slow pace is part of the vision.
David Swinghamer, Meyer’s longtime business partner who also handled the growth of Blue Smoke barbecue, says they are looking for maybe 20 non-franchised Shacks along the East coast in 5 years.
Shake Shack Customization
If you’ve been to their locations, you know they play off of their surroundings. The Shack on Columbus and 77th is customized to look like a sidewalk café as it is across from a museum, and the Flushing, Queens Shack sports the former Shea Stadium scoreboard skyline.
A Shake Shack pre-fab prototype runs around $1 million, and Manhattan will soon see new Shacks go up in at least 3 locations: Prince and Mulberry Streets this spring, another on the Upper East Side at East 86th Street near Lexington Avenue, and another in the theater district at 44th Street and Eighth Avenue.
Other locations include the ground floor of a Miami Beach building designed by the Pritzker Prize-winning Herzog & de Meuron and a Shack in Kuwait, to be managed by Alshaya, a local company that also manages Kuwait branches of brands like Starbucks, Dean & DeLuca and Le Pain Quotidien.
According to Swinghamer, “Our focus is not on how many you do. If we can’t do it right? We won’t do it.” Meyer adds that “we will grow as broadly as we can, without losing the quality, the hospitality, the community. And the sense of humor.”
They are taking pieces of the slow-food movement, the widening desire for fresh, organic food and the draw of the gourmet and wrapping them in localized, human experience. A fresh approach to the classic burger joint- now excuse me, I think it’s time for me to go get in line.
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