Shake Shack (Madison Square Park)

2 Madison Avenue | NoMad | built 1906

Open on the map4 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 2001

    Danny Meyer's team sells hot dogs from a cart in Madison Square Park

    As the city rebuilt Madison Square Park, restaurateur Danny Meyer helped found its conservancy, which put on an art show called I Heart Taxi to draw attention to the renewal. His operations director, Randy Garutti, set up a hot dog cart supplied from the kitchen of Eleven Madison Park. The cart did so well that it stayed in business for nearly three years, paving the way for the park's permanent food kiosk.

    Source: Wikipedia

  2. 2004

    July

    The city picks Meyer's group to run a permanent kiosk, and the first Shake Shack opens

    In 2004 the city took bids to operate a kiosk restaurant in the park, and Meyer's group won with a plan that added burgers, fries and shakes to the hot dog menu. The first Shake Shack opened there in July 2004. It was meant to be a single shop designed for New York, not the start of a chain.

    Source: Wikipedia

  3. 2004

    James Wines and SITE design the ivy-covered kiosk to echo the Flatiron Building

    The kiosk was designed by artist James Wines and his firm SITE as a riff on the roadside food stand, with triangular forms borrowed from the Flatiron Building nearby. English ivy covers the cantilevered trellis over the service windows, the sloping roof and the back wall. Large stainless steel letters spelling Shake Shack, set in the typeface Neutraface, run across the roof.

    Source: pentagram.com

  4. 2015

    January 30

    Shake Shack goes public on the New York Stock Exchange, opening at $47 a share

    Shake Shack priced its public offering at $21 a share on January 29, 2015, and the stock opened at $47 on the New York Stock Exchange the next morning under the ticker SHAK. The company had grown from this single park kiosk to outlets in 15 states and Washington, D.C. by August 2014, and its filing described plans for 450 company-run stores. Shares touched about $90 that May.

    Source: Wikipedia

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