Shake Shack: Shaking up the Status Quo

It’s no surprise that millenials are killing off the 90’s style casual chains like Applebee’s and Buffalo Wild Wings. While I’ll fondly remember going to Ruby Tuesday’s after a day of consumerism with my mom at the mall, those days are over. Malls are dying, online shopping is king, and millenials have less money and more things to do. Of course, we also know more about our food and care about where it comes from, and many restaurants take advantage of that. We’ve seen the ascension to fame of fast-casual restaurants like Chipotle and Panera, which offer fresh and high quality foods quickly while advertising their ethical responsibility. As you might imagine, there was room for a burger restaurant in this vein, and Shake Shack is it.

Shake Shack started 15 years ago in Manhattan, catering to the New York elite and their quickly-changing tastes in Madison Square Park. Their fare quickly became legendary – people lined up down the street (and continue to do so) for their quick, filling, and tasty fare.  Shake Shack is at the top of the new normal for restaurants right now: they serve good food fast, have giant open layouts, and tout a varied and heavily caloric menu of American favorites. Much like Brome, which we recently reviewed, Shake Shack does this with lots of branded materials, socially-conscious practices and marketing, tons of social media hype, and old fashioned word of mouth.

Shake Shack is filling the same need in downtown Detroit – located right on Campus Martius in the center of downtown – for fast and good food. Major employers have moved back in and hungry employees with very little time want good things to eat. While there are other great choices like Checker Bar and Grand Trunk, which serve as slower casual lunch spots, Shake Shack is the champion of the quick lunch – even offering the option of ordering through their app and picking up without standing in line, which even in Detroit can stretch down the street.

Step into Shake Shack and everything feels extremely curated. They’ve changed a lot from their food cart days, with efficiency experts and engineers poring over data to make it the most efficient and Millenial-Approved™ as possible. Shake Shacks were designed for efficiency, starting with the revolving doors on the outside of the building and ending with their ordering system. You’ll see the huge line in front of you when you enter, but the line moves quickly. You’ll notice that the dining area is almost full, but with the speed that orders come out, there will probably be a spot for you when you get your food.

While I won’t go into the details of how the Shack purports to be sustainable and environmentally conscious (you can look at their own page for that), they do have a number of charity partners, support sustainable agriculture and livestock, and use Pat Lafrieda (and other butchers) for their meat, which is freshly ground, and has no hormones or antibiotics. Shake Shack does not claim to use grass-fed, like Brome does, but they take other similar steps to ensure quality meat – showing that they care about their product.

For the official MCBC visit, we came on a Saturday afternoon and were met with a long line, although not quite out the door. The trip was planned last minute, so we had a smaller group than usual. This turned out to be helpful, as Shake Shack was busy, and almost spilling out the revolving door. If we were in a hurry, we could have used their online app to order ahead of time and just picked up our food. Stare at their wall-sized menu, order your food, get a buzzer. After ordering you can pick up your condiments, including Louisiana hot sauce (which is an interesting but good choice), and hellman’s mayo packets, which are much better than most generic mayo packets, as we’ve learned in the past. After you’ve stocked up, you can stand for a minute and ponder why anybody would buy a Shake Shack onesie. When we ate there, we probably waited five minutes for our food to be ready after waiting in the line for the register for five minutes. You’ll be in and out fast. If you’re working at Quicken on a 60-80 hour per week schedule and have little time for lunch, this may be a godsend.

Shake Shack offers their own beer, brewed by Brooklyn Brewery, and given the boring name “Shackmeister Ale”. Brooklyn is known for making consistently good beers, so this was a smart collaboration for the New York-based company for collaboration. Unfortunately, the beer is very bland. It’s a lighter beer that is easy to drink, pairs with most things because it doesn’t have any discernable flavor, and is not something to celebrate. For a brewery that makes Sorachi Ace, which is an incredibly nuanced and funky beer that is among my favorites, they could absolutely have done something more bold and interesting as a signature for Shake Shack. Luckily, they have plenty of beverage offerings: red or white wine made by Frog’s Leap in Napa Valley for Shake Shack, lemonades and sodas, and of course, shakes.

I got the smoke shack (topped with bacon, cherry peppers, and shack sauce) and split it with Alice, who wanted to try the chick’n shack (fried chicken breast with tomato, lettuce, and buttermilk herb mayo). I’m not sure that I have to tell midwesterners this, but mayo with buttermilk and herbs is just ranch dressing – so their menu is trying to pull some weird psychological tricks with this listing. Frank managed to order an extra burger by mistake somehow, and Alex was able to get a gluten-free bun with her burger. The menu has a portabello burger as an option for any vegetarians or vegans, although we didn’t bring any of them with us this time.

We were too hungry to take cross-section pictures.

These burgers are good. They do a smashed burger, which is similar to what you might get at Five Guys. Smashed burgers take a small amount of meat, physically smash them on a very hot griddle and cook them quickly.The bigger surface area means more crispy brown bits and maximal maillard reaction on the patty while the short cooking time prevents the meat from drying out. If you want to try this at home, I am a huge fan of J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s version, where he also explains all of the science behind it. This is almost the only kind of burger I make at home now, unless I want to pull out the grill, and its very easy and fast to do.

A smashed burger is very different than a pub burger, which has a much bigger patty size and more control over doneness ratio and uses no smashing in the process of cooking. Smashed burgers Shake Shack cooks their burgers to at least medium, much like Brome does, but it makes more sense due to the patty size. Smashed burgers are unlikely to be cooked to a rare or medium rare level – because they cook too quickly to stay there. Shake Shack is not shy about toppings, but use small amounts of good things to complement the patty instead of overwhelming it. My smoke shack burger with cherry peppers, shack sauce and bacon was a good balance of smoky, sweet, creamy and acidic. The cherry peppers they use have a kick to them, but they won’t clear your sinuses, either.

While not included in the ratings, the Chick’n Shack sandwich was well-executed, with a juicy and salty chicken breast fried and on a small bun. The pickles provide a good acidity, and saltiness ties the whole thing together. Great textural contrast with the crispy breading, creamy ranch, and juicy chicken are a powerful thing.

That is a lot of cheese sauce.

Alice and I split an order of cheese fries. If you didn’t know, Shake Shack only sells crinkle-cut fries. I know what you’re thinking, and I agree, most crinkle-cut fries are terrible. Fortunately, they managed to do a reasonable job of it, though, as they were salted well, still crispy on the outside, and not a total abomination like most crinkle-cut fries. It’s still an odd choice. The cheese sauce is incredibly savoury, but also incredibly dense. Since our fries got a ton of cheese on top, there was no way we could finish them. It also congeals in a strange way over time where is stays slightly viscous but turns into a blob anyway, and really doesn’t make the fries more appealing. A side of cheese sauce would have been preferable, and we could have enjoyed the rest of the fries.

Of course, Shake Shack wouldn’t have its name without shakes and concretes, made with custard. They are small and incredibly rich, though they are pretty expensive. Carl was unhappy with the cost of his tiny shake, understandably,  though it tasted good. I would be remiss to not mention that their “Motor City Mix” concrete uses Bon Bon Bon dark chocolate and Rocky’s peanuts, which is a spectacular combination. If you’re not aware of the magic that Alex Clark and her crew do at Bon Bon Bon, head downtown or to their Hamtramck headquarters immediately and try a Hot Mess.

We concluded our visit with a delicious coffee from the Roasting Plant across the lobby of the First National Building, a long walk down the beautiful Detroit riverfront, and a stop at Grand Trunk for some great beer and mediocre service. The location is fantastic – and tourists to the city as well as locals will enjoy Shake Shack’s proximity to bars, workplaces, and the city’s arenas.

This is a very cool painting of the city. There’s even a little Kowalski sausage in Hamtramck!

As you can see, there are a lot of positive things that myself and others like about Shake Shack. They have quality food at good prices and you don’t have to sit down for two hours to eat it. They care about their sourcing and appeal to the ethical nature of millennials.  I am fine with places like SS overcoming older fast food and casual dining business models (which also have their place in the market), but underneath it all, there is no soul to their service. That little food cart in Manhattan probably had a tremendous amount of soul, but now they are still a giant chain with 134 locations listed on the New York Stock Exchange, designed to make a profit.

So I might still eat there instead of McDonald’s or Wendy’s, I’ll appreciate the hell out of the employees working there and definitely appreciate the food too (that chicken sandwich is so good). But I’m much happier giving my money to local business owners, working for years and building personal relationships with the people walking through their doors, rather than just be seen as a marketing demographic. In Detroit, I’m lucky enough to be able to do that for less money and better quality food. And if you’re part of my marketing demographic, that may be something you care about too.

Incredulous? Or just hungry?

Ratings

Music Report: Bad, boring, good volume.
Burger: 4.11 
Service: 3.971
Atmosphere: 4.025
Value: 3.54
Overall Rating: 3.914 

Alice –  “Chicken was well done, the ranch was good. Cheese on the fries was tasty, but would have preferred it on the side.”4/5
Alex – “Gluten Free Bun :)” 4.5/5
Carl – “It was pretty good, cheese fries were good. Greasy and heavy. I am full. Pretty expensive for what you get, the shake was too much for a small amount.“ 3/5
Erik – “Non-offensive setting, crowd, etc. But the lack of uniqueness here is a minus. The chicken sandwich with ranch is killer!” 4/5
Frank – “Tasty, greasy overpriced burger. Simple and satisfying.”4/5

Shake Shack 
660 Woodward Ave. Detroit, MI 48226
313-672-0501