At 12:30pm today, I was walking in the rain in Midtown New York City on my way to a meeting, when I came upon an odd sight. I found at least 500 people standing in a long and winding line in a park — in the rain — waiting for food!
At first, I thought maybe this was some kind of crisis food line for the homeless and the genuinely hungry — but when I took out my camera and began to follow the line to the beginning, I was shocked to see all these New Yorkers were standing around just to get a hamburger at the Madison Square Park Shake Shack!
Behold the mother ship! Shake Shack was born from a hot dog cart in Madison Square Park created by Union Square Hospitality Group to support the Madison Square Park Conservancy’s first art installation “I ♥ Taxi.” The cart was a success and lines formed daily, so we re-opened for an additional two summers in 2002 and 2003.
See that wild line for yourself! Here’s my video:
I find it sort of sad that people would pay $8 for a double burger and stand in line for three hours just to take a bite of beef.
Do those good people really have nothing else better to do with their day than wait in a perpetual queue?
Bravo! Love the video. It proves without judging. I’ve heard about that Shake Shack, but I never would’ve believed the line tales until I saw it with my own eyes — and now I have!
I thought something bad had happened and people were standing in line to give blood or something. When I found out it was a burger line, I couldn’t believe it. I wouldn’t even stand in a line like that for chocolate!
No burger is worth three hours of my time …………….
My very first thought was there was a celebrity or people were lining up to watch a competition for a TV competition show like Donald Trump’s “Apprentice” or something, then I saw it was a formal line for food.
I wouldn’t wait that long, either, and those were hardened New Yorkers, not tourists, who claim the wait is worth it for the “best burger in NYC.” Some of them go several times a week, and they are working people and you would have to be to afford to eat there.
Janna,
This seems to be a big reason people are waiting
http://www.timeout.com/newyork/food-drink/a-decade-of-shack-shake-shack-debuts-new-burgers-for-10th-anniversary
People just love Momofuku I guess :0
That’s a good article.
Shake Shack has always had long lines. I remember watching a report on it years ago.
Here’s a story from July 2010 about the long lines:
http://boles.co/midtown-lunch
Long Lines at Shake Shack CitiField described in a food poisoning story in the NYTimes during May:
http://boles.co/shake-citi
2008: Long Lines!
http://boles.co/shake-2
And now – record breaking long line! Janna may have seen the longest line in history!
http://gothamist.com/2014/06/10/david_chang_burger_breaks_record_fo.php#.
We live in a sad, bored, world where a shrimp stack beats the day.
Dude! It’s Shake Shack. ‘Nuff said.
Shake Shack is now its own living landmark.