When you’re alone and life is making you hungry you can always go.... Downtown to Shake Shack, which opened this morning in the heart of DTLA’s fastest-developing stretch. OK, so you don’t have to be alone as you head over there—and you certainly don’t have to listen to Petula Clark’s “Downtown,” though we do recommend it—and in fact, it may be better to go with a group because this new location’s serving a handful of new items and you’re going to want to try them all.
Today’s launch marks the NYC-based burger chain’s seventh location in Los Angeles, and its second L.A.-area restaurant in the last sixth months (what’s good, El Segundo). Just down the street from Whole Foods, Shibumi, the brand new NoMad hotel and Modern Times Beer’s Dankness Dojo—not to mention around the corner from the Freehand hotel and the Golden Gopher—Shake Shack’s new DTLA spot is turning a Downtown corner into a griddled-burger oasis decked out in hanging plants, lots of natural light, art by Thomas Dambo (who previously decorated the West Hollywood location), and tabletops made from reclaimed bowling alley lanes.
Photograph: Courtesy Shake Shack/Aliza J. Sokolow
Perhaps most exciting of all are the new menu items. Shake Shack always offers “concretes,” or fast-blended frozen custard, in flavors unique to each store. In their latest and greatest, you can expect three: the DTLA, made of chocolate custard, fudge sauce, Compartes dark chocolate chunks and banana; the Cookie Butter Blender, with vanilla custard, cookie butter, chocolate toffee and chocolate sprinkles; and the Pie Oh My, a fundraising shake you can find throughout L.A.’s Shake Shacks, each utilizing a different slice of pie from Cake Monkey Bakery, and each location donating five percent of the shake’s proceeds to a unique local charity. This spot’s donating to Inner-City Arts, and kicking off with cider-roasted apple pie in a double cheddar crust swirled into vanilla frozen custard, and, because wonders never cease, the pie flavors will rotate seasonally.
And because (wo)man cannot live on frozen custard alone, in addition to the regular menu of smashed burgers, hot dogs, a mushroom burger and a fried chicken sandwich, you can also snag a few new items such as the griddled chicken club sandwich or the Roadside Double, a California-only double Swiss cheeseburger topped with Dijon, bacon and beer-simmered onions.
We’d say we’ll see you there, but we’ll most likely duck in for pickup, ordering ahead through the official ShackApp—it’s not our first new-Shake Shack rodeo, and we all know how those lines can be.
Shake Shack is now open at 400 W 8th St, from 11am to 9pm, daily.