Shake Shack’s New Delights

Normally, winter is not the season where I start thinking about marinating ribs, heating up a grill, and getting out my favorite dry rub. However, Shack Shake defies such conventional thoughts with new menu items centered on every professed grill master’s favorite condiment: BBQ sauce. Rethinking my pre-conceived notions about when and when not to have BBQ, I found myself determined to try Shake Shack’s new BBQ ShackMeister Burger, BBQ Chick’n Shack,  and BBQ Bacon Cheese Fries with my friends.

We started out with the BBQ Chick’n Shack, a fried chicken sandwich with pickles and BBQ sauce. The chicken was crispy, juicy, and perfectly seasoned. The sauce added a sweet, slightly spicy hit that melded with the pickles for the perfect bite. Bundled inside rich potato rolls, the Chick’n Shack was good to the final morsel.

Next, we went for the BBQ ShackMeister Burger. Corny name aside, it is hefty beast of a burger. Piled high with fried shallots and slathered with BBQ sauce, Shake Shack’s traditional cheeseburger takes on new meaning with the additional sweetness and crunch. I leveled mine up with pickles stolen from the Chick’n that added another layer of texture and zing that the original missed out on. Even without this addition, the ShackMeister is exactly what you would expect from a burger that smells faintly of pulled pork: a delicious, albeit heavy, experience from start to finish.

Finally, my friends and I shared the BBQ Bacon Cheese Fries. The name quite literally describes this bowl of crinkle-cut fries, ranch sauce, cheese, BBQ sauce, and bacon. The flavor is also what you would expect: salty, tangy, creamy, and rich. While there are no real surprises here, there are also no disappointments in the straightforward delivery of sinful goodness.

Written by Ben Blanco

Photos by Leah Sprague