Shake Shack is an American fast casual restaurant chain based in New York City. It started out as a hot dog cart inside Madison Square Park in 2001, and its popularity steadily grew. In 2004, it received a permit to open a permanent kiosk within the park, expanding its menu from New York–style hot dogs to one with hamburgers, hot dogs, fries and its namesake milkshakes.
Since its founding, it has been one of the fastest-growing food chains, eventually becoming a public company filing for an initial public offering of stock in late 2014. The offering priced on January 29, 2015; the initial price of its shares was at $21, immediately rising by 123% to $47 on their first day of trading.
Shake Shack Inc. owns and operates over 400 locations globally.
History
Concept and early history
In 2000, New York City began the rebuilding of Madison Square Park, which had fallen into a state of disrepair and misuse. As part of the redevelopment, restaurateur Danny Meyer helped spearhead the creation of the Madison Square Park Conservancy to help redevelop it. One of the first things the Conservancy did in its goal to improve the park was to host an art exhibit called "I <3 Taxi" inside of the park to raise awareness of the renewal effort. Meyer's Director of Operations, Randy Garutti, established a hot dog cart which was run out of the kitchen of Eleven Madison Park, one of Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group (USHG) operations. Over time, the cart became extremely successful, and remained in operation for nearly three years.
In 2004, the city began taking bids to operate a new kiosk-style restaurant within the park; Meyer outlined his idea for the space, and opened the first Shake Shack in July 2004. From its beginning the restaurant was not designed to be a chain; it was intended to be a single shop location designed specifically for New York City. However, as the original location's sales continued to grow, the group realized that there was a market for expansion.
Since its opening, Shake Shack has grown to be the largest part of the USHG's portfolio. Its average store revenue of million is more than twice that of McDonald's average store revenue within the United States. Its popularity is such that in the summer at its original location, the wait in line for service can stretch to over an hour, especially on weekends when the weather is pleasant. A webcam on the restaurant's web page shows the current line in real time.
Expansion
In June 2010, Shake Shack opened its first restaurant outside of New York City at the Lincoln Road Mall in Miami Beach's South Beach neighborhood. In April 2017 the location completed a month-long renovation that added 586 square feet of space, bringing its seating capacity to 106.
On July 12, 2010, Shake Shack restaurants were opened in the Theater District and the Upper East Side. The Upper East Side location's opening was significant because it "lifted" East 86th Street, an urban shopping district which had fallen on hard times; the location had been vacant, and even when occupied, it was described by a neighbor as "never anything good there...dingy and dilapidated...almost an eyesore."
In July 2011, it was announced that Shake Shack had reached a deal with the MTA to open a location in the lower level of Grand Central Terminal. This project was delayed because the tenant occupying the space Shake Shack was to take over, Mexican eatery Zócalo, refused to vacate after the expiration of their lease and filed suit, arguing that the "bidding process (for retail space in Grand Central) is corrupted." The suit was dismissed and Zócalo appealed. In October 2012 Zócalo filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. In early May 2013, Zócalo vacated the space, and the new outlet opened for business on October 5, 2013.
Shake Shack opened its first airport location in May 2013 in JFK's newly expanded Terminal 4.
IPO and continued expansion
By August 2014, Shake Shack outlets had begun operating in California, Connecticut, Delaware, Washington, D.C., Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia, in addition to the New York locations. That month, reports surfaced that the company was preparing to go public with an IPO and was discussing an underwriting with a number of investment banks, including J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.