Shake Shack, a fast food restaurant chain specializing in burgers and shakes, will be opening a new location at the Stanford Shopping Center in fall 2018. While the chain already has 43 restaurants in the Northeast, this will be Shake Shack’s first location in the Bay Area.

Rachel Roberts, the Stanford Shopping Center’s director of marketing and business development, said she has high hopes for the new Shake Shack location.

“I think it will do really well,” Roberts said. “We’re such a diverse community with so many tourists coming through, as well as [people from] the University.”

Shake Shack’s Vice President of Development Andrew McCaughan agreed.

“We know it has taken a long time, and we’re thrilled to bring our first Bay Area Shack to Palo Alto,”McCaughan wrote in an email to The Daily. “We hope our fans are as excited as we are.”

Elias Milborn ’21 hails from New York City, where Shake Shack opened its first location in 2004. Milborn described the burger joint as having a “wholesome, clean feeling to it.”

“[Shake Shack was] a place I went to a lot in high school, so it’s more familiar to me,” he added.

When asked why the company chose to expand to the Bay Area, McCaughan said, “We’re huge fans of the Bay Area for all of its pioneering energy.”

As for why Shake Shack chose the Stanford Shopping Center as the venue for its next location, McCaughan said that the center is a “premiere retail destination and natural gathering place.”

“We’re excited to join that landscape and offer the Palo Alto community a fun place to get together with family and friends,” he wrote.

Roberts said she also believes Shake Shack will be a positive addition to the Stanford Shopping Center. She noted that the shopping center is home to a variety of restaurants that offer a range of fast food to higher-end options.

Although some believe Shake Shack sells fast food, Roberts said that she considers the venue “an elevated experience [compared to] McDonald’s,” referring to Shake Shack as “a popular, high quality, American establishment.”

While this new location will be Shake Shack’s first in the Bay Area, it will not be the company’s first restaurant in California. According to McCaughan, Shake Shack’s first west coast location opened March 2016 in West Hollywood.

“We were absolutely blown away by the positive response and warm embrace of the neighborhood,” he said.

Not including the incoming restaurant, Shake Shack currently has seven locations in California: five in the Los Angeles area and two in San Diego.

Contact Michel Espinosa at mesp2021 ‘at’ stanford.edu.