After Fuku threw down the fast-casual chicken sandwich gauntlet last month, it was only a matter of time before the restaurant that owns NYC’s fast-casual burger market responded.
Yes, Shake Shack finally began serving a fried chicken sandwichtoday. (No word yet on whether either restaurant has a decent French fry in development.)
The ChickenShack sandwich ($6.29) seems to follow the same model that worked for Shake Shack’s burger: make the best version of a classic dish. The fried chicken is accompanied by just lettuce, pickles and a buttermilk herb mayo.
The type of bun didn’t rate a mention, and neither did the spice level of the breading, but the humble magic of Shake Shack’s burger is that there is nothing about it that would perk a foodie’s interest — until they taste it.
But the lack of details aren’t the only reason we’re tempering our enthusiasm.
Wait, just Brooklyn?
Shack CEO Danny Meyer is worthupwards of $600 millionafter the restaurant’s IPO earlier this year, so he probably doesn’t ride the subway. But upwards of 6 million of us do every day, and we can only spend so many sweaty afternoons on the Jay Street platform, watching A trains go by for 30 minutes andbargaining futilelywith an uncaring god for an F train, before rethinking hanging out in Meatpacking.
And yet, to taste the ChickenShack sandwich, you have to head south, my friends. It’s only available at Shake Shack’sthreeBrooklynlocations. But I guess the yuppies of the Upper East Sidesuffered enoughwith Shack’s attempt at hand-cut fries, so it was the hipsters’ turn in the food science hampster wheel.
Actually, don’t wait
The announcement of the ChickenShack was thin on details (and alsoa day late), but it’s only available “for a limited time.” Will it abandon uslike Danny Zukowhen the weather gets colder? Is this just to create an artificial shortage situation a la Fuku’s 11 a.m.-4 p.m. schedule, because what this city needed ismore hour-long lines?
To make it worth your while, whilethere aren’t cocktailslike at Fuku, Shake Shack also dropped a peach lemonade and the Brooklyn Pie oh My concrete (a slice of Four & Twenty Blackbirds strawberry balsamic pie with vanilla frozen custard). Also only in Brooklyn, so just remember to bring a summer read to finish on the train there.
You can’t get it with an affogato
A Shake Shack location in Philadelphia partnered with a coffee joint next door for this affogato, and if our ChickenShack sandwiches wouldn’t be cold and soggy by the time the train pulled in, we’d make it our weekend foodie field trip.
Eva Kis is on Twitter @thisiskis, where she talks about pop culture, cats and media almost as much as food.
