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Shake Shack vs. Louis’: Face-Off Begins

by Allan Appel | Oct 2, 2012 2:58 pm

(24) Comments | Commenting has been closed | E-mail the Author

Posted to: Food, Downtown

Allan Appel Photo Ken Thorn likes the salt and the grease. So he drove all the way from Naugatuck for a Shake Shack bacon cheeseburger, medium, the way he likes it. Plus a Woodchuck cider drink, with spices of the season. He once went to Louis’ Lunch but didn’t return—because, he said, they give you what they want, not what you want. 

That’s exactly what appeals to Officer Kathy Bisson, a Louis’ customer on her downtown beat for the past 10 years. Burgers with onions or tomatoes but no ketchup. Take it or leave it. She takes it, along with a Pepsi.

As the face-off between the city’s oldest burger and its newest entered its third week, devotees lined up in both corners. They directed words of praise or critique as much to the ambiance and eating “experience” as to the meat patties themselves.

For example, on a Friday of heavy rain, Thorn was relaxing with the remnants of his burger and a few sips left of Woodchuck cider in front of Shake Shack’s fire; he had plenty of minutes left on the meter outside.

It was the second time Thorn had driven all the way from his Naugatuck home for a Shake Shack burger and experience.

Thorn works the night shift in Waterbury for the public works department. The first time he came to New Haven was on opening day; last week he was back again.

Not only did he pronounce the Louis’ burger he remembered “a little dry,” he added: “You can’t even bring ketchup in. They get mad at you.”

But there was more that draws him to the newest burger on the block: “I enjoy the fire. They definitely don’t have that at Louis’. There I feel I have to rush,” because there aren’t many seats. “Here they give you a beeper, no rush.”

Thorn did concede that “it’s neat the way they cook it [on the ancient broilers at Louis], but here it’s more flavorful, greasy.”

Over at Louis’, the putative birthplace of the hamburger, no panic could be detected in the air, only the rich aroma of onions and meat. The restaurant’s six or so tables were all filled and Officer Kathy Bisson was one of several people on a waiting line for take-out.

“We’ve been here before Shake Shack and we’ll be here after Shake Shack,” said Paul DeNegre, who’s been cooking at Louis’ for 20 years. He was paraphrasing Louis’s owner Jeff Lassen.

With a reporter, Bisson calculated that she has ordered approximately 500 burgers there over the past decade.

How would she characterize a Louis’ burger?

“It tastes good!” she said.

There was more than meets the eye in Bisson’s appraisal. As a cop, she likes the Louis’ take-it-or-leave-it approach.

Then she stepped up to the small counter, was handed her burger in a brown paper bag, and with a can of Pepsi she was out into the blowing rain. “I’m not going to melt, ” she said on leaving.

Her loyalty notwithstanding, Officer Bisson said she will probably try a Shake Shack burger. 

Locals v. Tourists

Al Matthews was in from Danbury for a New Haven weekend and was at the large circular table by the door with a number of other tourists finishing up the last morsel of his Louis’ burger, with onions.

Asked to rate the burger, qua burger, he said called it good. Asked for a rating on a one-to-ten scaled, he replied: “Six.”

It wasn’t just the burger that was making Matthews’ time at Louis’ clearly enjoyable. “It’s the ambiance, the history” said Debra Bly, also from Danbury, who was joining Matthews for a New Haven weekend. She pointed out the several people taking photographs of the restaurant as they ate.

Matthews said that for years he has heard of Louis’, the reputed 112-year-old birthplace of the hamburger as we know it. Friday’s meal was the fulfillment of that quest.

“We’ll have to wait a few hours before we go to Shake Shack,” he said.

While the received wisdom is that Louis’s attracts mainly tourists like Matthews and Bly, there were also many regulars like Bisson and Will Cleary, the music director at St. Paul and St. James Episcopal Church at Olive and Chapel.

“See. A little bloody. Just the way I like it,” he said of his burgers.

That there are regular locals at Louis’ and out-of-towners like Ken Thorn at Shake Shack belies the received wisdom.

Tuck in by the Fire and the Wifi

Shake Shack Vice President for Operations Zach Koff said the outlet has had a big response in its opening weeks. The Yale and Gateway students they expected to be the core of the business have come through, big time.

Koff reported that 350 Handsome Dogs have been sold since opening, and 1,000 burgers a day. The latter is fairly typical of Shake Shacks. It hasn’t been just students lining up, sometimes out the door.

“I have a gentleman who wrote me an email that he’s been here five times.”

Koff attributed the repeaters to the fire, the lounge, and on average the 30 minutes-to-an hour visit that each customer is enjoying.

That applied to non-students like Thorn, who said he was using up all of the 50 minutes he had on the meter.

Another attribute of the “experience” is that Shake Shack has never offered free WiFi before at any of its locations. Koff pronounced it a big success in New Haven. “This is the first place we created a place for you to stay a little longer, fire place, comfortable group seating.”

Ryan Day and Marilyn deGuehery came in and worked for an hour brainstorming the annual report they are preparing for Love146, a not-for-profit that fights international child trafficking.

Neither of them had been to Louis’ and expressed little interest in doing so. deGuehery pronounced Louis’ more of a “novelty” of a burger. Shake Shack is certainly not fine dining, but is the place you go for a higher-end burger, she said.

Their office is located around the corner, and they worked for an hour together at Shake Shack before ordering burgers: A double cheese for him, with sauce, and a regular hamburger for her.

“The 95 cents [the sauce costs] is too much for a condiment,” deGuerhery said.

All told they would be there for an hour and a half, a working lunch. Before they ordered and their beepers went off, they too were sipping Woodchuck cider.

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posted by: PH on October 2, 2012  3:11pm

Been to both in the past month and I’ll be back to both.  Very different burgers, very different ambiance, both excellent.  If one had to stay and one had to go, I’m sticking with the local family-owned institution each and every time…

posted by: Stylo on October 2, 2012  3:13pm

I like Shake Shack but prefer Louis’, and it’s probably a lot healthier.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t have to be a “face-off”. They are so COMPLETELY different from each other in every way and can each have their place in this great food city.

posted by: just my view on October 2, 2012  5:02pm

@PH and @Stylo - can’t agree more. Why does everything have to be a battle? Two differnt businesses. What would the City be with only ONE burger place?

posted by: Threefifths on October 2, 2012  5:21pm

posted by: Stylo on October 2, 2012 3:13pm

I like Shake Shack but prefer Louis’, and it’s probably a lot healthier

Healthier. Keep on eating.Read this.

Why There’s Ammonia in Your Hamburger

By NICK FOX

http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/why-theres-ammonia-in-your-hamburger/


The Burger That Shattered Her Life

By MICHAEL MOSS

Stephanie Smith, a children’s dance instructor, thought she had a stomach virus. The aches and cramping were tolerable that first day, and she finished her classes.

http://www.nytimes.com/video/2009/10/03/health/1247464978948/tainted-meat.html


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/health/04meat.html?pagewanted=all

posted by: brain_stringcheese on October 2, 2012  5:50pm

are you kidding me? shake shack is trash… louis lunch is great.  if you need a beer with your burger go to prime 16.

posted by: AyJoe on October 2, 2012  7:18pm

While I have not yet been to Shake Shack, or Lois yet, it would be a mistake to not include prime 16 in this discussion. 

Best burger I have ever had. 
And veggie burgers as good as the best I’ve had on the west coast.

posted by: robn on October 2, 2012  7:29pm

3/5,

A combination of ammonia and carbon dioxide has been used since the 1860s as a substitute for bakers yeast.

posted by: ramonesfan on October 2, 2012  10:21pm

Even though I go to McDonald’s once in a blue moon, I try to avoid hamburgers, because you never know about e coli.  I was kind of surprised to learn that McD’s has forced the cattlemen to sell them higher quality beef (to avoid e coli lawsuits). But burgers are still risky.  The beef used by Louis’ probably isn’t as clean as McD’s.

posted by: Threefifths on October 2, 2012  10:31pm

posted by: robn on October 2, 2012 7:29pm

3/5,

A combination of ammonia and carbon dioxide has been used since the 1860s as a substitute for bakers yeast.

And that is why I eat Ezekiel 4:9 Sprouted Grain Bread.100% FLOURLESS • COMPLETE PROTEIN • WHOLE GRAIN BREAD GLYCEMIC INDEX: 36 Ezekiel 4:9® Sprouted Grain Bread is inspired by the Holy Scripture verse: “Take also unto thee Wheat, and Barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and Spelt, and put them in one vessel, and make bread of it…”

http://www.foodforlife.com/product-catalog/ezekiel-49/breads/120C6-organic-sprouted-whole-grain-flourless-bread

posted by: ramonesfan on October 2, 2012  11:06pm

Re: the take it or leave it sign in Louis’
Jeff Lassen, Carl Icahn, Rahm Emanuel, and Benjamin Netanyahu all have one thing in common.  Their arrogance makes them very difficult people to get along with.  Not all of them. But some of them are a pain ....

posted by: robn on October 2, 2012  11:12pm

AYEJOE,

ditto

posted by: robn on October 2, 2012  11:44pm

3/5,

Ezekiel bread tastes like sh.. And for good reason…

You shall eat it as a barley cake, having baked it in their sight over human dung.
Ezekiel 4:12-13

posted by: nutmeg on October 3, 2012  7:59am

I think both Prime 16 and Educated Burgher should have been part of this discussion of downtown burger joints. 

That said, the burger bubble is growing to tech stock or real estate proportions.  I sense a correction soon.

posted by: FromTheHill on October 3, 2012  8:13am

Why is the Independent giving so much publicity to this chain restaurant?  You are making New Haven look like a third world country who just got its first Mcdonalds

posted by: DRAD on October 3, 2012  8:35am

The Shake Shack serves a nice, if forgettable, burger.  It’s a nice place to eat, it’s good for Chapel Street and all-in-all it’s about 1/2 as good as Louis. Here’s how you know that Louis is better:  at Louis it’s all about the meat—there is little bread, few condiments and (unlike the Shake Shack) doesn’t have some kind of “special sauce” (or whatever it is) to “enhance” the flavor.

posted by: Threefifths on October 3, 2012  8:43am

posted by: robn on October 2, 2012 11:44pm

3/5,

Ezekiel bread tastes like sh.. And for good reason…

You shall eat it as a barley cake, having baked it in their sight over human dung.
Ezekiel 4:12-13

And the Pink Slime in your burgers look like SH.. In fact how many people have gotten Mad Cow Disease or E.coli from Ezekiel bread?

Pink Slime and Mad Cow Disease: Coming to a Burger Near You Enjoy.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-robbins/pink-slime-mad-cow_b_1455656.html

posted by: streever on October 3, 2012  10:13am

FromtheHill
It is the same reason that the New Yorker, NPR, and the New York Times cover the same authors over & over—“the npr mafia”—the writers are very interested in the subjects and authors they are covering. I do think there should be an editorial “correction” in the extremly heavy ShakeShack coverage because it does look absurd to those of us outside the bubble of the NHI—what does an extremely bad for you fast food joint really offer?

3/5th
Humans can’t get mad cow disease, period. It is not transmittable to humans. Humans can contract Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a variant disease, but it has never been shown to come from food.

1% of all cases of vCJD have been shown to be contracted, that is, not due to hereditary genetics. Of those, the only proven origin is medical procedures that involved contaminated brain/nerve tissue.

Last year, only 29 people in the world developed vCJD, so you probably have nothing to worry about. Every American case has been traced back to a contamination occurring in another country.

So, if you’d like, you can rest easy for just one more day :)

posted by: Bill Saunders on October 3, 2012  1:10pm

I thought the Shake Shack burger was mediocre at best. For chain burgers, I will stick with Five Guys

I also had the less than mediocre hot dog—what, no Hummel?
This is New Haven, afterall.

posted by: Sagimore on October 3, 2012  3:48pm

Louis is good because they have the balls to sell very rare meat. It simply taste better.

posted by: JohnTulin on October 3, 2012  4:13pm

Two words:  The Doodle.  The Yankee Doodle beat them all.  Another New Haven treasure gone…

posted by: Bill Saunders on October 4, 2012  12:09am

And don’t forget the ‘pig in a blanket’ at the Doodle, John.  You will not have anymore.

posted by: Edward_H on October 5, 2012  12:52am

I went to Louis Lunch once and will never go back. Not only are their burgers way overated they act as if they are doing you a favor to cook a burger. Seeing people come in after me and get their orders before me did not help my impression either. I am looking forward to trying Shake Shack to see how they compare to Five Guys.

posted by: streever on October 5, 2012  8:29am

Edward:
I don’t like Louis’ burgers, but I can tell I won’t like these either from the picture. Unless I’m with friends, I don’t think I’ll bother trying the Shack!

posted by: Edward_H on October 6, 2012  6:04pm

@Streever

I think the pics for Shake Shack are not that appetizing but to be honest I thought the same thing when I first laid eyes on photos of Five Guys burger. Looking at the pics of a Five Guys burger made me think “What a sloppy mess!” but eating one made me go “Damn! Damn!! DAMN!!”. As a burger lover I am going to give Shake Shack a shot at least once.

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