Shake Shack (Madison Square Park)

The Shake Shack kiosk in Madison Square Park, at Madison Avenue and East 23rd Street in Manhattan's Flatiron district, is where the burger chain began in 2004. It started as a hot dog cart run to support the park's art programme, and it grew into a permanent kiosk and then into a chain with locations across the United States and abroad. Visiting the original is popular with tourists and local office workers alike, and its park setting distinguishes it from the chain's indoor branches. The cuisine is American fast-casual, centred on burgers, hot dogs, crinkle-cut fries and frozen custard. The signature is the ShackBurger, a cheeseburger on a soft potato bun with lettuce, tomato and ShackSauce, and the crinkle-cut fries and vanilla concrete, a thick frozen custard blended with mix-ins, are other emblematic items. The setup is a small kiosk with counter ordering and outdoor seating within the park, so there is no formal dining room, no dress code and no table service. The atmosphere is casual and social, with a queue that often stretches around the kiosk at lunch and on warm evenings, and the noise of the park and surrounding streets. Prices are in the $ range, though still higher than a typical New York slice or food cart, and the beverage list includes shakes, lemonade, beer and wine. There are no reservations; visitors join the line and order at the window, and waits vary widely with weather and time of day. Hours run roughly from 10:30AM to 10:30PM daily, though seasonal changes are possible. Madison Square Park itself has public art, a dog run and a playground, and the Flatiron Building, Eataly and Madison Square Garden are within a short walk, so the kiosk works well as a lunch stop on a Midtown or Flatiron itinerary.