At Lunch Now: UWS Shake Shack Fail

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As promised, I attempted to make it up to the new Upper West Side Shake Shack today in under an hour.  Unlike the the lunch’er who made the Monday attempt, I took the 1 Train.  I also didn’t leave early, or late- I went in prime lunching hour.  Here is how it went down…

12:17 Enter 1 Station on Broadway and 50th
12:23 Get on the Train
12:30 Train Arrives at 79 St. and Broadway
12:35 Get online at the Shack, which stretches out the door
12:55 Get to the counter to place order
12:58 Food is Ready

Now at this point, you could leave and make it back- in theory. We decided to stay.

13:17 Done Eating
13:25 Enter subway station at 79th and Broadway
13:26 Train Arrives
13:33 Exit Station at Broadway and 50th

1 Hour, 16 Minutes. A few things worth noticing… 5 mins from subway to the shack. 8 minutes to get back. You walk slower after eating lunch at the Shake Shack. You can easily shave 20 minutes off this time by taking your food to go, and you could aruge that the B is faster? Not sure. So, technically we could have made it there and back in under an hour- provided our office was located at the door of the subway station. You still have to make it from your office to the station.

Either way, the burger was great- but I will not be going back anytime soon. And it has nothing to do with the time.

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Oh, hell no! I completely underestimated how annoying it would be to stand in line with the 12:30 weekday UWS crowd. I never thought thougth I’d say this, but I think I prefer the suits at the Madison Square Park location.

20 Comments

  • Don’t act like you weren’t warned in the original thread Zach.

    UWS Shack means Upper West Siders. shudder.

  • Oh NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! The dreaded Mommy Brigade!

  • Have your driver pick it up.

  • We need to send in Mamacita in her finest Saturday night day-glo ho-wear. After the screaming stops no family will ever set foot in there again

  • btw, 7:30 last night-Shake Shack Mad. Sq. Park, no line at all.

  • I might have to make my 2nd trip ever to the upper west side. The first one was for Levain Bakery.

  • If you’re already there, forget Shake Shack-go to Big Nick’s or II for a real burger.

  • uh huh, this coming from the man who’s going to be shopping for one of those bad boys soon ;-)

  • As I live a block off Madison Park, I can basically say with authority the lines are reasonable to none these days anytime after 7:30 or 8. The cold drives people away. Even Sat night, the line was 4 or 5 deep max at around 9:30.

    Mind you, I still don’t get the hype over this place, and find it totally overrated, especially with any line over 5 minutes, but I will say with no line, it is better than avg, all things considered.

    Bottom Line: Go at night….

  • @Mamacita – Yeah, but my kid is going to be awesome.

  • I was just going to say! You post a photo of strollers and say “Oh hell no” but Baby B. is coming soon and you’ll be pushing one of those bad boys yourself :) and stopping to chat with other Mommies/Daddies about the benefits of breast feeding versus formula feeding (babies stay full longer with formula; my sister uses it as the last bottle of the night so the babies will sleep thru the night)… etc. :)

  • Do you guys think the UWS Shake Shack will shake (pun intended) the lines out alittle at the Mad Square location. Maybe it’ll split the crowds and make both lines more managable. We can hope.

  • UWS MILFS and subpars>Suits @ MSP.
    Just sayin’.

  • I’m doing the UWS shake shack either tomorrow or friday if anyone wants to meet up. They have a Museum of Nat. Hist. shake. supposedly some sorta chocolate/vanilla thing with crunchy bits in it.

  • Nat.history crunchy bits?

    Fosilized T-rex poo?

  • Has anyone seen my husband. Both he and Mr. Wiggles are gone.

  • I would never, ever think of going that far up, especially since it already takes me 30-40 minutes to get to Chinatown and back from my office. Just the other day it took me almost an entire hour to get from 57th st and back and I was just picking up my food.

    Going that far would be risking a 2 hour trip.

    I would head up there after work though.

  • No chance the MAdison Park line will get shorter b/c of the UWS location–especially in the nice seasonal weather of any season other than winter. Keep in mind the MAdison location is a block off of the Path, so you have to deal with the Jerseyites and the locals….

  • Hmm let’s see, hate yuppies, hate UWS mommies, I’ll place an order with a coworker.

  • No race to/fro, leisurely stoll through the park from 59th and Fifth (being a lame duck has it’s privileges)

    12:18 line is about to the corner I get on it

    12:38 timestamp on receipt

    12:45 food in hand

    12:52 scoff double CB and choc malt while watching the idiots at Strawberry Field (look I lost a piece of my soul too but it’s been 28 FUCKING YEARS ALREADY…ALRIGHT!)

    Foundation laid for my 3:30PM appt with Dr Rudy.

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