Today is the official opening of the Canal Place Shack, the third outpost in New Orleans of the popular hamburger chain. It will be located at 333 Canal Street, in the corner spot of Canal Place which borders Decatur, in the space formerly occupied by Brooks Brothers.
Last night I dragged Tom in there to see the place and to have what I consider to be a great hamburger. It has even less seating than usual, which is saying something for this chain. This seems to be an unfortunate characteristic of their physical spaces. Badly designed, or genius?
Anyway, it was amusing to see the hovering required over Shake Shack tables happening even at a soft opening. They passed around ordinary french fries, which are even worse cold. And then the delicious hamburger arrived, with American cheese oozing out over the hormone-free meat. I unapologetically love this chain. The burgers were followed by a fried chicken sandwich that was equally good. I was disappointed to not try the hot dog, which I may just have to get instead of the burger on my next visit. I was happy to see some nuggets come to the table. These are smaller than Wendy’s and a lot better. A little spicy, too.
They were pouring their ale, which was fine, and they had canned Shack White wine and Shack Red. This is a signature difference of the chain.
There were some big names in town in the restaurant business milling around, and none of them were scowling like Tom. He showed a little mild interest when the custards were brought to the table. We didn’t linger too long, and as soon as we got up there were three parties ready to jump in.
Opening today, and the lines should be there already.
Shake Shack
333 Canal at S. Peters
Canal Place
