Larry Olmsted

Special for USA TODAY





The scene: The impressive story of fast-growing Shake Shack began in 2001 with a hot dog cart in New York City's Madison Square Park. The cart developed a loyal following and soon had a line of hungry customers, and the line, even more than the hot dogs, would become the defining feature of the brand. The cart grew into the original 2004 Shake Shack in the same park, which lived up to its shack name as a to-go only kiosk serving food from sliding windows with no indoor seating. The stand is a contemporary stainless-steel-and-silver take on a traditional roadside creamery/fast-food shop. While the chain does serve very good shakes, as its name implies, and still offers up the hot dogs it started with, it has become synonymous mainly with burgers – and long waits.

Shake Shack was an integral part of the huge burger-popularity explosion of the past ten years. The Shake Shack concept is similar to that of even-faster-growing Five Guys, both serving appreciably juicier, beloved and better-than-industry-standard fast-food burgers. Shake Shack notably helped create the niche of fast casual burger places also serving premium shakes, a concept now found in pretty much every major city and from top-name chefs like Laurent Tuorondel (Go Burger), Gordon Ramsay (BurGR) and Bobby Flay (Bobby's Burger Palace), all profiled in this column.

The look of the original Shake Shack, with its three-dimensional chrome lettering spelling out the restaurant name, its rugged metal trusses, and uniformed staff in casual black polo shirts has been replicated at nearly three dozen locations worldwide. Today the burgers, dogs, shakes, concretes (see below) and fries can be had from Boca Raton, Fla., to London's Covent Garden, as well as in Dubai, Turkey and Russia. There are a dozen Shake Shacks in the Middle East alone and several additional locations in New York. The biggest difference from the first humble shack is that most now ostensibly offer a dine-in option; otherwise they generally have a similar look and feel, the biggest differentiator being the concretes, which have regional specialty flavors at most locations, and the fries, undergoing a bit of a tune-up after more than ten years.

Reason to visit: Shakes, hot dogs, SmokeShack burger

The food: I'll get this out of the way quickly: Some items are very good, but nothing at Shake Shack is exceptional, and certainly nothing justifies the sometimes substantial waits, the often annoying seating situation, or the incomprehensible status it has taken on (at least in New York City) as a must-visit tourist attraction. My biggest complaint is the seating: I've been to lots of restaurants across the country where you order at a counter, get your food, and take it to a table, from the famous Texas barbecue joints like Kreuz Market to Philly cheesesteak temples to just about every other fast-food burger place in America. You are simply never going to walk into McDonalds and see people using the garbage cans as tables or trying to eat standing up while balancing the tray in on one hand and dodging a sea of people moving through, but these are regular occurrences at the Shake Shacks I've been to, at lunch and dinner on different days of the week.

The original shack works because it is only to-go, and it helps a lot that it has a park and picnic setting. But at some other locations they seem to routinely break the customer–vendor pact suggested by asking if you want your food to stay or to go, the implication being that you could in fact stay if you wanted to. Because the scale of these places is so off, customers respond by sending half their party to stake out and occupy tables long before they even make it through the line to order, so that each of the too-few tables ends up being occupied for an artificially long time. It's a frustrating breakdown, and unfortunately it can sour the experience enough to overshadow some very tasty options.

That being said, there are some enticing items and things worth having if you happen to visit at a slow time when there is no wait. The shakes are the most impressive thing on the menu, not quite as stellar as the best versions at some of the chef-driven gourmet burger-and-shake places, but better than anything in the fast-food world. At a time when gourmet shakes are on the ten-dollar threshold, these, like the rest of the menu at Shake Shack, are refreshingly reasonably priced. The list is pretty basic, but solid: vanilla, chocolate, black & white, strawberry, caramel and peanut butter, the last two being standouts.

On the other hand, the concretes, Shake Shack's most unique signature item, are lost on me. These are a frozen-custard dessert with various blend-ins, thicker than a shake and eaten with a spoon, but not as rich, creamy or tasty as ice cream. The story is that Shake Shack founder and extremely successful restaurateur Danny Meyer (Union Square Café, Gramercy Tavern) is from St. Louis, and this is his homage to that city's custard, made famous at another roadside shack, Ted Drewes. The problem is that Ted Drewes is underwhelming (yes, I've been) and this treat just doesn't translate to those to those who didn't grow up with it. For the vast majority of tourists packing Shake Shack, chances are they have never longed to try St. Louis frozen custard, and unless you are the rare exception, I'd go with the shake.

The burgers are the menu mainstay and what most people rave about, and they are much better than average fast-food burgers, meaty, juicy and flavorful. All iterations are available as a single or double and cooked to medium unless you specify otherwise. Again, this item has a good back story: Shake Shack worked with now-celebrity butcher Pat La Frieda to create a secret, proprietary blend rumored to include brisket and short rib that is made just for Shake Shack (though there are similar custom blends made for many other famous restaurants). But you do not bite into one of these burgers and say "wow, that tastes like short ribs," you say, "hey, that's a good, juicy, fresh, tasty fast-food burger." Menus vary slightly by region (and I'd like to visit the London location which instead uses "100% Aberdeen Angus beef grass fed on Scottish pastures"). More than the patty, what greatly improves the experience is the quality of the toppings, like the tender but not soggy plum tomatoes and tasty crispy lettuce. I especially like the SmokeBurger, which adds cheese, Niman Ranch bacon and zesty cherry peppers, an unusual spicy touch that is a big flavor boost. While I am not personally a fan of mayo-based sauces, many regulars absolutely love the secret "Shack sauce," a slightly spicy, sweet and sour blend of mayo, ketchup, mustard and spices.

The hot dogs are the hidden gem and very good, though if you look around they clearly play second fiddle in popularity to the burgers. They start with a solid 100% meat frank, no nitrates or antibiotics, butterflied and griddled flat. The DogMeister is a delicious but messy option, topped with melted cheese (a blend of cheddar and American) and crispy shallots, which like the cherry peppers on the burger are an unusual but very effective touch, adding both flavor and texture. Even the chicken dog is surprisingly good and packed with flavor, much better than most poultry sausages, which seem to be meant as imitations of regular dogs (again, London gets its own interesting menu, with a handmade Cumberland pork sausage from rare-breed pigs).

Until recently, Shake Shack served uninspired frozen crinkle-cut fries, a major weakness for a chain based on a typical order of burger or hot dog and fries. However, hand-cut, skin-on regular fries were introduced at the Upper East Side location in New York last fall. So I made a special trip there just to try the new style (there was still nowhere to sit), which is quickly being rolled out chain-wide (they hit Philly two weeks ago). The new fries are a little thicker than shoestrings, salty, crispy and quite good, and so far superior to their predecessor that I would be surprised if the crinkle-cut survives.

Pilgrimage-worthy?: No.

Rating: Yum! (Scale: Blah, OK, Mmmm, Yum!, OMG!)

Price: $$ ($ cheap, $$ moderate, $$$ expensive)

Details: 30+ locations in New York, Pennsylvania, D.C., Florida, New Jersey, Connecticut, England, Turkey, Russia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Lebanon, and later in 2014, Austin. shakeshack.com

Larry Olmsted has been writing about food and travel for more than 15 years. An avid eater and cook, he has attended cooking classes in Italy, judged a barbecue contest and once dined with Julia Child. Follow him on Twitter, @TravelFoodGuy, and if there's a unique American eatery you think he should visit, send him an e-mail at travel@usatoday.com. Some of the venues reviewed by this column provided complimentary services.