When the announcement was made that a Steak ‘n Shake was coming to NYC, I didn’t get what all the fuss was about. Perhaps as a born and bred Jerseyan who went to school in Upstate NY and then settled down in NYC, I was just not raised to understand the gloriousness of steaks and shakes from a flyover-country chain (har har har). I mean sure, I do enjoy a Shake Shack burger now and again (though their dogs are really where it’s at and their shakes are super tasty) and I do think Schnipper’s burgers and shakes are divine, but part of the reason I like them is because they are so New York. (Yeah… I’m a bit of a NYC snob… sorry). But then again, one of my favorite places to eat on any road-trip is Cracker Barrel, and there ain’t nothing NYC elitist about that!
Anyway… back to Steak ‘n Shake…
One opened up just recently next to the Late Show studio (Broadway between 53rd and 54th). After a particularly delicious meal that should have left us 100% satisfied, we popped out of the restaurant to see this brand new neon sign just calling to us: “You NEED a shake! You cannot go to bed without first filling your already stuffed belly with creamy goodness!”
And seriously… who can argue with a neon sign giving you subliminal commands?
The rumor was that there was a queue (wow… I’m sitting here in London at the moment and without a second thought, I just typed “queue” instead of “line”… strange) at all hours, but we got there about 10 minutes before closing and were ushered in by a security guard-type dude (why? no idea) to the counter to order. I knew they were pretty famous for an extensive burger menu, so I was surprised to see the limited options. I was definitely too stuffed to try a burger, but we ordered up 2 Specialty Shakes, which had candies mixed in with your choice of flavors.
We stepped around the corner to see the Shake Station, which was a large shake makin’ machine.
As we waited for our shakes to be whipped up, I noticed that they have the cool new Coke machines that let you pick from about 6 million flavor combinations. This, in and of itself, is a draw since the only other place I’ve seen these are in movie theaters in NYC.
We eagerly took our shakes out of the shake mixer’s hands and took a sip. Well… more like sucked our cheeks into our mouths as we tried with gusto to get anything through that straw. With hardly any luck, we wound up downing most of it with spoons.
And how was it?
Ehhhh… Friendly’s & Dairy Queen each have a version of this shake, but dare I say the ice cream was much better at those. Much creamier, much more flavor. This was flat, boring ice cream with frozen candy mixed in.
So I guess I still don’t get what all the fuss is about…
