SHAKE SHACK

Well, it was the last meal of the trip and I decided to take my sister to the famous/infamous Shake Shack. For those of you who don't know, Shake Shack was opened by Danny Meyers (the restaurateur of well known places like Gramercy Tavern, etc. ) in the middle of Madison Square Park. (next to the Flatiron building). It is famous for it's burgers and because it's only open like 4 months of the year, the anticipation and countdown for it's opening is also well known. I think it's most infamous for its lines, which are so long that they have a live webcam on their website so people can plan their visits accordingly. Tom (not my Tom, Jeany's Tom) accurately described it as the In N Out of New York (at double the price and there's only one of them for a population of 10 million).

It opens at 11am, so we arrived a little before then. We saw the Shake Shack team sitting outside, enjoying the beautiful weather and we quickly grabbed some tables. As 11 approached, a line began, so we joined it.

Luckily, it wasn't too bad. And the entire time we were there, there was a line, but it never got to be too crazy. The thing I discovered this weekend is that if you go to NY during holiday weekends, and you hit the places that's normally mobbed by locals, you have a much better chance of getting what you want, because the locals are gone, and the tourists don't know about it. After placing our ordered, we were given little devices that vibrated when our orders were ready- which was less than 10 minutes later.

Here's Tom's order of Shake burger and we shared an order of fries. The fries were pretty good. I know Shake Shack gets a lot of crap for using frozen fries, but due to the way these fries are cut, they end up being really crispy and I enjoyed them. Tom also enjoyed his burger.

Here's my order of Second City Bird dog. It's a chicken and apple sausage with mustard, onion, relish, pickles and red peppers slices. It was good, but so big I couldn't finish it. And they put too much mustard on it, which ended up squirting all over hand. The main thing i didn't like about it was the bun. Since it wasn't grilled or anything, it was a little weak and actually fell apart as I ate the hot dog. The good thing about the sausage was that it was the first apple chicken sausage I've ever had where you can also see chunks of apple inside.

And here's my little sis with her bf, Ben. She's enjoying a double burger. If you happen to order this, be warned that it's two patties on a bun. That's it. So if you want the extra stuff, order a Shake Burger.

I think everyone really enjoyed their food. It wasn't amazing, but it wasn't too expensive, either. (by NY standards) And we got to enjoy it in a beautiful park on a lovely day. I wouldn't wait an hour in line for it (hell, I wouldn't wait 30 minutes in line, maybe 15) but for the day and time, it really was a great meal. So if you're there early, and there's no line, than check out Shake Shack for a yummy burger and crispy fries.