Shake Shack opens in Oceanside
The stack burger at Shake Shack's newest location in Oceanside features a deep fried portobello mushroom patty on top of a hamburger patty. Credit: Newsday/Andi Berlin
Shake Shack has gone full South Shore. The rapidly expanding burger chain opened its fifth Long Island location in Oceanside Monday, and the lunchtime waits were shorter than expected on opening day.
The building in the Sands Shopping Center was packed around 1 p.m. with patrons piling up at the open kitchen window and extra staff members on hand to walk customers through the computer screen ordering process. The outdoor patio, overlooking the nearby retail stores in the parking lot, was full of families slurping frozen custard shakes and piercing crinkle cut cheese fries with wooden tongs.
Despite the hubbub, the kitchen seemed to already be firing on all cylinders. Meals were delivered directly to tables in less than 10 minutes, and the food itself was on par.
The menu at the Oceanside location is the same you'll find at other Shake Shacks in the state, although the chain has been expanding across the United States and internationally. Recent menu additions include the veggie burger ($8.79), a plant-based patty with American cheese and Shack sauce, which has a meaty texture like an Impossible Burger but tastes more of shredded vegetables. The 'Shroom Burger ($8.89) is still a better vegetarian option though, as the deep-fried bulb of portobello mushroom is satisfying with its stringy melted cheese center. It's not trying to be meat, but doing its own fabulous fungus thing.
In addition to the seven meat-based burgers, there are two chicken sandwiches, a grilled cheese, the iconic flat-top dog that hearkens back to the chain's origins as a hot dog cart in Madison Square Park, and even dog biscuits: the Bag O' Bones and the Pooch-ini (with frozen custard).
The restaurant shares a building with the also brand-new Just Salad, a New York-based fast casual outfit known for its environmentally charged low-waste practice of serving salads in reusable bowls. And a few steps away, there is a J. Crew outlet store for when you need a bigger belt.
Shake Shack, 3535 Long Beach Rd., Oceanside, 516-842-7085, shakeshack.com. Open 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 10:30 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday and 10:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday.
Andi Berlin is from Arizona and does not know where she is going. But when she gets there, she’ll find something beautiful and delicious that the world needs to taste.
