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A hotdog cart in the park
It began in 2001 as a hotdog cart in Madison Square Park, the front yard of two restaurants run by Danny Meyer, Eleven Madison Park and Tabla. An artist's sculpture of four taxi cabs on stilts needed someone to operate a cart underneath it. His teammates called the idea crazy, since they were already busy running four restaurants. He staffed the cart with coat checkers, who had no work until late October, and sold Chicago-style hotdogs, whose eight classic toppings gave the four of them a challenge: remember how every regular liked theirs.
The line stretched through the park, and the cart lost a fair amount of money, which makes sense, since hotdog carts rarely have four people working them. It came back in 2002 after neighbors asked for their hotdog cart even though the art was gone. In 2003 every profit was promised to the Madison Square Park Conservancy, and that summer the cart made $7,500.
The permanent kiosk
A permanent kiosk followed. Drawing on a book called The Cathedral Within, which argues that capitalism can create wealth for a community, he donated the kiosk to the park. The park owns the building, and a percentage of every sale goes back into keeping the park beautiful and safe. He named it Shake Shack, never dreamed of a second one, and didn't open another for five years. Today there are 700 of them in 22 countries, and the company is public.
Why do Chicago hotdogs carry so many toppings?
The Chicago-style hotdog is usually traced to the Great Depression, when the city's stands sold a loaded frank as a cheap full meal. The classic version sits an all-beef hotdog in a poppy seed bun and piles vegetables and condiments on top, which is often described as dragging it through the garden. Purists traditionally leave ketchup off it.
How do city parks end up funded by restaurants?
Many New York City parks are run by nonprofit conservancies that partner with the city's parks department. The Central Park Conservancy, founded in 1980, is widely seen as the model: it took over management of the park under an agreement with the city and raised private money for upkeep. Conservancies elsewhere fund their work through donations, events, and fees from concessions operating on park land.
Why did Shake Shack's stock debut stand out?
Shake Shack listed on the New York Stock Exchange in January 2015. The shares were priced at $21 and opened well above $40, more than doubling in value on the first day of trading. Its ticker symbol is SHAK.
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