My First Shake Shack Experience

It seems lately there's more hype around here every time a new burger place opens than when any other restaurant arrives. Naturally, I tend to pay attention because, well, I like burgers. And you may remember that I waited in a line for 90 minutes in 2010 to try to get a free burger at the newly-opened 500° -- though I only got a buy one, get one free deal instead. And I compared 500° to Five Guys.


Since I wrote that post Five Guys opened a second downtown location, as well as one at Grant Ave. near Roosevelt Blvd, which is a lot closer to my house. So when I get a chance I stop in either one of these locations.


Based on the comments I've seen online from New Yorkers, where the Shake Shack chain originated, I was very excited to hear that Shake Shack was opening here, at 20th and Sansom Sts. This is right next to one of the comic book stores I regularly frequented, which would be great if I hadn't cut back on comics after DC Comics decided to have Superman wear his baby blanket as a cape.


So the other day, after it had been open long enough (almost 2 weeks) that the lines during off-peak hours (such as between lunch and dinner) pretty much dwindled, I visited the Shake Shack. At 3:20 pm, the wait in line was maybe five minutes. And also because of the time, I was able to sit at a table with no problem.


After looking over the various menu items, I decided on a single ShackBurger, which is a basic single-patty burger with lettuce, tomato and their own special sauce.  I also got an order of fries, a regular-size soda and a dessert item. They have what they call Concretes -- described on the menu as "dense frozen custard blended at high speed with mix-ins." They have some that are Philly-centric, or you can just pick your own mix-in items. I ordered the "Center City Pretzel," which includes vanilla custard, "Philly-style soft pretzel," caramel sauce, marshmallow sauce and banana. I ordered the regular size instead of the half-size.

It took about ten minutes for my order to be ready. So how was everything?

Photos And Such

After work I went into center city and decided to visit Five Guys. I got there shortly after 5 and it was virtually empty. Just one customer at a table eating. Possibly because it was a slow day and they had lots of potatoes to get rid of, possibly because I put a dollar in the tip jar, possibly both, I got a huge amount of fries thrown into the bag on top of the cup inside. Such joy.

Then I took a look at their bulletin board, where you can have a card tacked up exclaiming your feelings for Five Guys.

Ummm...excuse me?

Not sure whether a child wrote this or a smartass teen or adult, but... (On the odd chance that it was a kid, I covered up the name written in the lower right corner, even though I can't really tell what the name is.)

After I left Five Guys I walked west on Walnut St. to 15th, on my way to the El, and I passed a UPS Store, with a front door that is still anticipating a Christmas rush.

Or maybe they're planning early for Christmas 2012?

Meanwhile, let's talk about cramps. No, not those cramps. Leg cramps. I've occasionally gotten them in the mornings when I wake up, although it hasn't happened much in recent years. But I got one. Last night, while sitting on my recliner. I just moved my leg some way and it hit. Just awful. And then this morning I didn't wake up until 6:50 am. That's the latest I've awakened on a work day since I started the job in October. I won't go into the details of how little and how quickly I washed up before getting dressed. I still managed to get to work on time, though.

Just realized that, with the comic book post I did last night, I have only one overdue story to blog about. Of course, it's now been simmering for just about a year. I actually started on it a couple of months ago and then put it aside. Seriously. The 17th of the month is the one-year anniversary of the tweets that started this particular idea percolating in my head. I may try to finally puzzle out my thoughts by then. It has to do with a singer, a former U.S. Postmaster General, politics and...a board game.

Ballpark Rankings Update - O.co Coliseum

While I was in the San Francisco area I was able to get to an Oakland Athletics game. They play in what is now called the O.co Coliseum. O.co is the new name for Overstock.com. It's a terrible name but the sponsorship makes sense, since the whole Moneyball theory the A's operate on is based on trying to get quality players at a cheap price. Anyway, O.co is an old place -- older than the Vet. It opened in 1966 for the NFL Raiders and the A's moved in from Kansas City in 1968. So old that the men's room had troughs instead of urinals. I've taken a vow to never use a trough.

Being one of those multi-purpose places, the sightlines aren't so great in some areas. And even where I sat (seven rows behind the visitors' dugout; thanks for not buying up the good seats, A's fans), it seemed far away because there's a lot of room between the stands and the foul lines. That helps pitchers a lot, because foul pops that go into the seats in many places are easily caught here.

I stood up between innings of the game (in which the former Philadelphia A's beat Detroit, the day after the Tigers clinched the AL Central title) and circled around to take this video. YouTube is having issues again, or something, because the sound

My Wednesday...Something

This still represents how I feel about winter (now that it's officially here).

Not sure what word to use with Wednesday that compares to Sunday Funday. Anyhoo, I'm going to try and accomplish the following tomorrow:

1. Comic books
2. Macy's Holiday Light Show (haven't seen it in a while)
3. Comcast Holiday Spectacular (haven't seen it at all)
4. If it opens as scheduled, lunch at the new Five Guys Burgers on Walnut St.
5. The movie "I Love You Phillip Morris" at the Ritz at the Bourse
6. ....well, at this point there's nothing else. If you have a suggestion or would like to hang out with me instead of stalking me from a distance, let me know. ;-)

We'll see if all of this works out. If there are crowds at Five Guys I may skip it and wait for another day.

Burger Chat: Five Guys vs. 500 Degrees

If you follow me on Twitter (and if you don't, why not?) you know that on Tuesday I waited in a line for around 90 minutes trying to get a free hamburger. A new place called 500° (they're also on Twitter) opened up in Center City, and they had special promotions running all day. Opening at 11 am, the first 100 people were getting a free burger.

I was number 103, because my alarm went off at 8:30 but I didn't actually get out of bed until 9:30. Since the two people ahead of me left when they found out they weren't getting a free burger, I actually was number 101. So close and yet so far. I couldn't get an entirely free burger, but there was an additional special: buy one, get one free.

A little background: Five Guys Burgers and Fries opened up a Center City location a few years back, and I found myself eating there regularly on Wednesdays when I made my comic book run. They have very good burgers and fantastic fries. However, I had a customer service problem back in July 2008 that was not resolved to my satisfaction, so I haven't been back since. If I happen to be somewhere where another Five Guys is located (such as last year when I found one at Harborplace, at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore -- I was sooooooooo happy that day) I'll eat there, but the Center City Five Guys is off-limits to me. I've missed it.

Then I read this item at philly.com:

Rob and Maggie Wasserman, whose burgers at Rouge on Rittenhouse Square get national attention, are less than two weeks from opening a burger-only shop called 500º at 1504 Sansom St., about four blocks away.

Naturally, much R&D went into the 500º burger. Rob Wasserman explains that they don't want to replicate the Rouge burger, a 12-ouncer topped with Gruyère and caramelized onions and served on a challah roll.

At 500º, chef Matt Zagorski is going with 5½ ounces of beef, also on a challah roll...In sum, the Wassermans are aiming to serve a delicious sub-$6 burger, the culinary equivalent of the 4-minute mile.

Needless to say, I was intrigued. Could this be my replacement for Five Guys?