How will you spend your Thanksgiving break?
As I strolled into the Upper West Side chapter of Shake Shack, I was kindly informed by a staff member at the door that they were trying a one-day-only special burger with peanut butter and bacon. I'm the kind of guy who dips everything in every sauce at every restaurant, so naturally I was compelled to try the monstrosity by forces greater than those depicted in the Hayden Planetarium that sits adjacent to the Shake Shack.
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Shake Shack is expanding its horizons — no, not with a downtown location, but with new experimental burgers like peanut butter bacon.
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If you've never had a burger from Shake Shack, you should probably stop reading right now and head over there — this specialty burger is not for newbies. It was $5.50, only a bit more expensive than their standard $4.75 single ShackBurger, and it lacked standard accouterments like lettuce or Shake Shack's special sauce (which I'm pretty sure is just Thousand Island dressing of some kind, but whatever). When they say "peanut butter bacon burger," understand that they mean just that — a peanut butter bacon burger, with a big ol' slab of meat slathered in gooey, dripping peanut butter and topped with a few large squares of thick, chewy bacon, all sandwiched between Shake Shack's signature sweet bun.
By the time they'd handed me the creation, the peanut butter had already dripped out of it and gotten all over the paper wrap. Hot liquid peanut butter flew everywhere with every bite, covering my hands and face with an uncomfortable stickiness that necessitated licking up because no army of napkins could ever be large enough to wipe up the brown goober goo.
The flavors at play here are complex. You get that meaty saltiness that bacon offers paired with the meaty, savory flavor of Shake Shack's excellent burger patty and the sweet saltiness of the peanut butter. The salt is pretty overwhelming and it somewhat ruins the flavor of the patty. This isn't something to be ordered without a drink, which I learned the hard way. By far the highlight of the creation is the mix of textures, from the chewiness of the bacon to the melt-in-your-mouth ground beef. I'd love to see the bacon on a regular ShackBurger, but the peanut butter didn't really seem welcome in the mix.
Apparently this is something that Shake Shack is considering adding to the permanent menu. Would I order it again if they did? Maybe. Probably not. Would I recommend it to an experienced Shake Shacker to try? Definitely. It's an interesting creation that at least satisfied my curiosity, if not my taste buds.
