delicious blog

May 18 2005

as we may eat

For years, I worked in Times Square. Corporate culture and the general urgency of work tended to foster a lunchtime environment that largely involved scampering outside for some take-out lunch and returning t eat alone at my desk. Or eating at the expensive cafeteria, which despite trying very hard, often failed to rise above miserable. I’d once gone down there to see if it had improved, and their Food of the World on that day was “New York Street Food.”

While there are some great restaurants in the area, the choices available were meager. Menus were hoarded and the names of the few good places were passed from person to person… but mostly we ate at Wendy’s.

I now find myself working near Union Square. The wonderful greenmarket, appearing three days a week, apparently inspires a great deal of excitement in the gastronomic profession. I’ve found amazing places every time I wander outside to feed myself.

The vast majority of our attentions, however, have been aimed at the Shake Shack. While the shakes and “St. Louis Style” concretes are great, it is the burgers that are not to be missed. We can hardly cross 22nd street without being drawn directly into its greasy gravitational field, hopefully not to be repelled by a daunting wait in the often enormous lines. The long wait does serve to provide time for our internal arguments regarding the pursuit of the Ideal Burger, and whether the Single Shack (better sauce to meat ratio) or the Double Shack (more meat) more closely approaches perfection.

After our exceedingly painful colo experience on Monday (two of the ten new machines are up now) we gave up and I decided to treat James, our friendly neighborhood bandwidth provider, to a Double Shack Burger in thanks for his long efforts.

A day later, he reports back: “I’ve been craving the Shake Shack all day. You awful man.”

Joshua Schachter · joshua Tags: lunch bookmark this