Shake Shack Adds a Downtown Boston Location This Weekend

New York-born burger chain Shake Shack — which dates back to a 2001 hot dog cart in a park but now has over 260 permanent restaurants all across the globe — is continuing its Boston expansion this weekend, opening at 322 Washington St. in Downtown Crossing on Sunday, November 3, at 11 a.m., the company announced today. It’ll be the third Boston proper location and the sixth in Massachusetts overall. The first 100 in line on Sunday will get a Shake Shack t-shirt.

The burger-and-shake chain first hit the Boston area in 2013, debuting to much fanfare in Chestnut Hill before expanding to Cambridge’s Harvard Square, Newbury Street in Boston’s Back Bay, Legacy Place in Dedham, and Boston’s Seaport District. The Seaport location — the chain’s 100th — opened in August 2016, so the last three years or so have seen the chain more than double in size.

“[100] is just a number that never crossed any of our minds ever,” Shake Shack founder Danny Meyer told Eater Boston on the eve of that Seaport location’s public opening. “It’s a number that obviously has happened but not a number we were ever aiming for, and yet here it is.”

Here it is, and then some. As Shake Shack expansion continues globally, it’ll continue in Massachusetts as well — the Downtown Crossing location will not be the last. It’s also slated to open at the Arsenal Yards development in Watertown and at the Burlington Mall.

Although the chain is huge, it does make an attempt to differentiate its locations with some local specials. The new Downtown Crossing location will have a few Boston-y concretes (frozen custard with mix-ins), including the colonial custard (vanilla custard, strawberry puree, lemon curd, and shortbread cookie) and Revere’s tracks (vanilla custard, chocolate toffee, salted caramel, and chocolate sprinkles). There will also be the pie oh my concrete (vanilla custard with pieces of seasonal pie mixed in), and the company will donate 5% of the pie oh my sales to Massachusetts’ Project Bread nonprofit organization, which works to end hunger.

There will also be a few local beers at the new location, from Cambridge Brewing Company and Harpoon.

When this location was seeking the necessary approvals from the city of Boston, it looked like it could potentially operate from 8 a.m. to 1 a.m.; breakfast service is rare at standalone locations, but some train station and airport Shake Shacks offer it. However, the Downtown Crossing location is currently slated to be open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily., so no breakfast; stay tuned for any updates.

• Downtown Boston Could Get Its Own Shake Shack [EBOS]