Ever vigilant Jay Fitzgerald notices that the Times has written Yet Another Story about Shake Shack, the New York burger stand that wants to open up on Boston Common. This time, we learn the owners are seeking to open a branch in Kuwait, which is somewhere out there in the world, so, therefore, Fitzgerald acknowledges, this would mean a Boston Common stand would make us world class. Or something. If Shake Shack even opens here, because the story implies that the owners are still only considering Boston and seem a bit hurt that Bostonians might have gotten all snarky at them.
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Why not a Clam Box instead?
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 12/17/2009 - 11:12am
Local business, iconic architecture ...
5th graders rejoice
By Spatch
Thu, 12/17/2009 - 3:46pm
...and a double entendre with every word.
If you can't stand the snark, stay out of the Hub
By Andrew
Thu, 12/17/2009 - 12:46pm
and no, the snark wasn't one of the reasons I left Boston.
If you can snark it there, you can snark it anywhere
By Lanny Budd
Thu, 12/17/2009 - 2:40pm
Yes, because there is nothing but sweet naive sincerity in New York.
Snark or no, Shake Shack on the Common's still a good idea
By MC Slim JB
Thu, 12/17/2009 - 2:22pm
Shake Shack comes from good people. The vendor with the competing proposal is no better on the "local" score, his menu doesn't sound very appealing, his sidelines (Freedom Trail Ketchup?) sound cheesy, and he has virtually no track record. Most important, Shake Shack makes a great product.
We can't have building
By NotWhitey
Thu, 12/17/2009 - 3:29pm
We can't have building casting shadows on the Common, but a restaurant is OK? When you let private business build on the Common, it's not the Common any more. The city got by for over 350 years without a burger joint on the Common. Contrary to current belief, there is more to life than eating out.
The restaurant on the Common isn't new construction
By MC Slim JB
Thu, 12/17/2009 - 3:37pm
Shake Shack or whatever goes on the Common will not be new construction, but will occupy the "Pink Palace" http://multimedia.heraldinteractive.com/images/2ec... , a disused former restroom. (That's Ken Oringer in the corner of the photo, who once was in the running to put a restaurant there, but has since withdrawn.)
And fie on you for casting aspersions on the great avocation that is eating out. It's not all there is to life, but a great burger and frozen custard is a cheap luxury.
Clam Box at the Pink Palace?
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 12/17/2009 - 4:00pm
It just keeps getting better for those 10-12 year olds out there ...
Yes, it truly is a banner day
By Spatch
Thu, 12/17/2009 - 4:15pm
Yes, it truly is a banner day for furtive snickerers.
There you go
By JohnnyStraphanger
Fri, 12/18/2009 - 3:28pm
Thank you MC Slim JB, my favorite Boston food scribe, for not only advocating for a Shake Shack, but for defending the notion that people may want to *gasp* eat out in a city (or even in that city's centerpiece green space). To all of the folks who keep deriding Shake Shack for not being local enough, produce a viable local alternative. You keep mentioning the Clam Box and every other fried fish place within a spit of a commuter rail stop, but you neglect to mention that neither Clam Box nor Woodman's nor Huots nor anyone else who puts batter to bait has ever given downtown so much as a thought. Now you want them to come swooping in to save us from good burgers and excellent shakes and fries because Danny Meyer doesn't fit your provincial definition of what's suitable for the Common? Please. Ken Oringer, Todd English, Barbara Lynch, Jasper White... none of them have stepped up to do what Danny Meyer is offering and has already succeeded in doing elsewhere. For Boston's "food scene" to give him nothing but grief for the attempt is just backward.
"We don't need a burger joint." No, what we don't need is another downtown vacancy where a ratable could be just because the city of 1,000 mac and cheeses is put off by the idea.
P.S. While we're at it, let's stop Balkanizing the street vendors and let them set up shop beyond Park Street, Faneuil, Downtown Crossing and Fenway.