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Praise Be To God: The Shake Shack Cometh… Officially!

Posted by Victor Fiorillo on April 28th, 2011

You know that you’re living in a food-worshiping town when the prospect of a burger and milkshake stand from New York could fuel rampant speculation, off-the-record phone calls, and anonymous tips. But such has been the case for over a year regarding the esteemed Manhattan-founded Shake Shack, with the first fattening tidbits coming in to Foobooz way back in December 2009.

This morning, mega-realtor Michael Salove (his firm Michael Salove Company is involved in the vast majority of Center City retail and restaurant transactions) confirmed that he just signed Shake Shack for a spot downtown. And as if that’s not enough to get us all jazzed up, his exact words were: “We have just signed our first Philly location.” Meaning that one day Philadelphia will, like New York, sport five Shacks? One can only hope.

Salove did not provide an exact address, though we’re hearing 20th Street near Sansom, somewhere in the immediate vicinity of that nasty adult book store whose time has come and gone (long ago). The people at Shake Shack HQ answered our inquiry with a non-answer of the sort that you tend to get from people at HQs. They did tell us about the five new Shake Shacks they intend to open in 2011 (two in DC, one in Battery Park, one in Brooklyn, and one in Connecticut), but Philly was not on the list.


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    This entry was posted on Thursday, April 28th, 2011 at 1:07 pm and is filed under Opening Soon. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

    • 75 South

      Shake Shack is going to take over the world.

      I for one welcome our new burger overloads. I’d like to remind them that as a trusted internet commenter, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground grease caves.

    • J

      Oh man, opening next to Village Whiskey? The turf war will be on.

    • barryg

      I would not take what Salove says as official if the chain itself hasn’t confirmed it and he hasn’t given a location.

    • Dan

      Ooh.. that’s bad news for me, I live above the Trader Joes. I’m gonna have a hard time keeping my number of visits there in check.

    • Tonyjlive

      That means no more whip-its from John’s Books.

    • bob

      hahaha @barryg – so true!!

    • eldondre

      here’s hoping they’ll open in logan sq’s sister cities since frog burger seems to be no more

    • http://midtownlunch.com/philadelphia Jamie

      shake shack single handedly got me to like burgers, very excited

    • Uncklejason

      Yawn

    • http://www.kristastes.com kristastes

      Awesome! When I visited on a few weekends ago I was thinking they would be perfect in philly. YUM!

    • Tex

      This is great. Too bad it isn’t in Franklin Square instead of Squareburger.

    • Snake

      What’s the story with this place? Fast food? Like 5 Guys?

    • Willie

      It’s a burger/shake joint modeled after the St Louis custard icon Ted Drewes (Danny Meyer grew up in SL). The burgers are griddled In & Out-style burgers. Shake Shack was the genesis of the Pat LaFrieda ground beef craze. The burgers are awesome – better than 5 Guys, way better than Squareburger – but they’re still not as good as a good restaurant burger (say Village Whiskey). That’s not what they’re trying to be, anyway.
      So yes, this is great news.

    • Hamburglar

      BURGERS are over!

    • http://hedancesfornickels.blogspot.com Handsome Pete

      We don’t need New York.

    • http://hedancesfornickels.blogspot.com Handsome Pete

      But since the rumored location is two blocks from my house there’s a good chance I’ll dine at the interlopers.

    • Willie

      It’s not good because it’s NY, it’s good because it’s good. And we should want all the good we can get, homegrown or imported doesn’t matter. People need to get this bug out of their asses over NY.

      • http://hedancesfornickels.blogspot.com Handsome Pete

        Shake Shack is good. I’ve enjoyed it. But Philadelphia’s burger culture is doing fine on it’s own.

    • Willie

      And it’ll be even better with the addition of Shake Shack.

    • Jacq

      How about the concretes!! I love their custardy goodness!!

    • Willie

      True, that’s what is being overlooked – their custard is excellent!

    • Hutch

      I’m a 500 degrees fan. Is shake shack better at burgers,fries and shakes?

    • phl_restaurant

      I think Philly could use more New York. Unfortunately, I think the food culture isn’t as adventurous as I’d like. And, there simply aren’t enough people in Philly to support all of these places. But, I think the more the merrier! Bring it all! Let the good ones stand. Bottom line, the burger and beer pubs will be left standing in this city. That’s what we know.

    • Willie

      @Hutch: Yes, IMHO Shake Shack outdoes 500 Degrees in all respects.

      That being said, the burgers that 500 Degrees were serving up yesterday at the Rittenhouse festival were outstanding and much better than what they normally serve in their store. Whatever they were doing differently yesterday, they should bottle it and serve it on a daily basis.

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