Shake Shack Downtown Brooklyn

Slowly, Danny Meyer's Shake Shack is changing the landscape of the burger world. It started in Madison Square Park in 2001, with a hot dog cart created by Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group to support the Madison Square Park Conservancy's first art installation. Fans of the cart lined up for three summers until USHG won the bid to open a permanent park kiosk. Then the real fun (and lines) started. The "roadside burger joint" started serving incredibly juicy burgers on potato rolls and rich, thick, creamy custards with mix-ins (concretes), and the best Chicago-style hot dog outside the Windy City. It took until 2007 for the Shack to stay open through winter, but it's since become a New York institution — and spread beyond its borders, immediately ranking among those locales best burgers. Menu additions, mash-ups, and location-specific items have followed at newly launched Shacks in New York, Connecticut, Florida, D.C., Philadelphia, the Middle East, and now London. Location specific items at the Downtown Brooklyn Shake Shack include the Urban LumberShack, and Fudge-eddaboutit, Borough Precedent concretes. — Arthur Bovino, 11/20/2012