Shake Shack Opens in the Seaport August 16

Shake Shack burgers. / Photo provided

UPDATE, August 15: Shake Shack is celebrating the opening of its 100th location Boston with free burgers around the world. Every Shack—save for locations inside stadiums and ballparks—will hand out free single ShackBurgers on Tuesday, August 16, to the first 100 guests, or until noon, whichever comes first. Every location, including the brand new Seaport Square Shack, will open at 10:30 a.m. for the promotion.

All Massachusetts Shake Shacks will also debut a new collaboration with chefs Ken Oringer and Jamie Bissonnette tomorrow. The Coppa burger, a beefy take on a classic Italian grinder, is availble August 16-21.

PREVIOUSLY:

A burgeoning neighborhood is about to get a burger joint that has been known to cause lines down the block. Shake Shack opens its fifth Boston-area restaurant in Seaport Square—and it’s 100th Shack—on Tuesday, August 16.

The newly dubbed Seaport Square is the largest master-planned project in Boston, intended to redevelop what was once essentially 23 acres of parking lots as a walkable, livable, actual neighborhood. It connects Fort Point, Fan Pier, Pier 4, and the Waterside Place development. The project began in 2012, and includes more than 20 buildings, five new streets, and four prominent public gathering spaces.

Shake Shack is the first restaurant to open in Seaport Square, says the company’s vice president of marketing, Edwin Bragg. “We’re thrilled about the opportunity it presents, what’s happening specifically where we are, but also in the Seaport. The beauty of the Seaport is it’s a whole new neighborhood with so much attention and focus on this area,” he says.

Acclaimed New York City restauranteur Danny Meyer (Gramercy Tavern, the Modern, and more)—who’s back in the national spotlight as a leader in the fair wage conversation—opened the first Shake Shack in Madison Square Park in 2004. It’s now in 15 states and Washington, D.C., as well as Tokyo, London, Dubai, and other international cities. The Seaport location follows Boston-area outposts in Chestnut Hill, Harvard Square, Dedham, and on Newbury Street in Back Bay.

“Shake Shack looks for neighborhoods that are truly community gathering places, where people live, where they work, where they go out to eat, go out with friends and family,” Bragg says, adding that the nascent Seaport district checks all those boxes.

Originally slated for an early 2017 debut, construction on the new Shake Shack began in April, but stayed completely on track, allowing the company to open ahead of schedule, Bragg says. It is part of almost 25,000 square feet of retail on the ground level of the Watermark building, which started welcoming residential tenants in fall 2015.

Watermark is next door to another new development, 101 Seaport, which is also slated to get a gamut of retail options. Eater Boston reports Yoki, a Medford-based Japanese restaurant, is headed for 101 Seaport, and another New York export, By Chloe, is currently on track for a November opening there, according to a rep.

Shake Shack Seaport seats 85, in a bright, modern dining room with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Seaport Boulevard. Pine and maple flooring was reclaimed from Cambridge.

The menu will have all the Shack classics, including antibiotic-free Angus beef burgers, Vienna beef hot dogs, the new Chick’n Shack sandwich, and crinkle cut French fries. It will also offer frozen custards and concretes, including two Seaport-specific flavors. There will be the Strawberry Crunch Cake, vanilla custard with marshmallow sauce, crumbled sugar cone cookies, and fresh strawberries, as well as the Seaport Salt & Malt, chocolate custard, salted caramel sauce, chocolate toffee, Somerville-produced Taza dark chocolate chunks, and malt powder.

Shake Shack Seaport’s non-profit partner is the Pier 4-based Courageous Sailing, and 5 percent of all sales of the Seaport Salt & Malt will be donated to that organization, Bragg says.

The Seaport location hasn’t secured a beer and wine license yet, but Shake Shack eventually plans to roll out house wines and brews, including the exclusive Brooklyn Brewery Shackmeister Ale.

Shake Shack will be open daily from 11 a.m.-11 p.m.

77 Seaport Boulevard, Boston, shakeshack.com.