By: Miles Friedman and Harvey Van Blerkom
On September 18th, 2018, Shake Shack opened their first innovation kitchen just up the street from LREI. There are new items on the innovation menu that will be there for only short periods of time and will either be added to the permanent menu, or removed entirely. The first menu two menu items that they are adding are “Chik’n Bites,” and the “Black Sesame Seed Shake.” The new Chik’n Bites come in 6 or 10 piece variants, and are small, round pieces of fried and breaded chicken. We asked Eli Harris and Freddie Fine who are both in the 9th grade what their thoughts were on the Chik’n Bites, and they said, “I’d give it a 6 out of 10,” which is not as strong of a rating as one might hope for a new menu item. These bites also come with a choice of sauce, barbecue or honey mustard. The chicken may not be the most popular, but many students enjoy the new sauces. Eli preferred the honey mustard, but Freddie liked the barbecue sauce.
Now that the New Shake Shack has opened, some think it will greatly change the “out of school lunch” scene at LREI. Jemma Fox, a freshman, when asked how Shake Shack would impact the students at LREI and where they eat, said, “I think a lot of people from LREI will go there, and it will become like an LREI hotspot for lunch.” Many freshman have been planning strategies so that when they can go to Shake Shack for lunch, they can get their food in the most efficient way. Jemma added, “The period before, I’m going to order it on the app so that when I get there, it’s ready and I don’t have to wait for it to be ready because we only have an hour.” Many others are eager to try the new Shake Shack. Eli Harris, a freshman also expressed his excitement when he said, “I’m excited to go try it out for myself. “So far, the Innovation Kitchen seems to be a big hit with the students and staff,” but many are eager to see more new items will be added to the menu. Jonathan Segal, from the Learning Center is excited to see what they add, and has ideas of his own for possible additions to the existing items. “I wish, for their innovation kitchen, they had a ‘happy meal,’ with a toy, like they do at McDonalds. I miss getting toys with my burgers.” Eli added, “I want to see more flavors of shakes…I want 10 new flavors of shakes.” They would most likely have to get really creative in order to add 10 new flavors of shakes, but Eli believes it is doable. Those in the neighborhood will just have to wait and see what they add, as the community around the Innovation Kitchen begins forming its own opinions about it.
Shake shack has released an article on what is expected of the new addition, click the link below to read more.
Shake Shack Innovation Kitchen
Cover image from https://goo.gl/images/SxH5GX