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Shake Shack tests new vegetarian burgerShake Shack tests new vegetarian burger

Veggie Shack joins ’Shroom Burger at six restaurants

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

April 25, 2018

2 Min Read
shake shack
Shake Shack

Shake Shack is testing a new vegetarian burger at six locations in Los Angeles, New York and Austin, Texas.

The Veggie Shack patty is made with black beans, brown rice and roasted beets, and it’s topped with provolone cheese, lettuce, tomato, onions, pickles and a vegan mustard-mayonnaise blend. The burger is priced at $7.29, the same as the chain’s other premium burgers. 

The burger can be made vegan by removing the cheese and using a gluten-free bun or lettuce wrap. The Martin’s Potato Roll that is typically used for the chain’s sandwiches contains trace amounts of dairy.

Mark Rosati, culinary director of New York City-based Shake Shack, said the veggie burger was in development for about six months and joins the more indulgent ’Shroom Burger, a fried portobello mushroom filled with melted Muenster and cheddar cheeses, and topped with lettuce, tomato and ShackSauce, priced at $7.29. That burger is also part of the Shack Stack, which includes a cheeseburger, for $10.49.

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“While we love the umami richness of the ’Shroom Burger, it does represent an indulgent side of the vegetarian spectrum,” Rosati said in an email via a spokesperson. “We wanted to create something on the lighter side that was equally as fun and enjoyable.”

The Veggie Shack was introduced at the six locations — Midtown East, Upper East Side and Astor Place in New York City; West Hollywood and Glendale in the Los Angeles area and at The Domain in Austin, Texas — on April 19 as an app exclusive, and then was made available to all customers on April 24. No end date has been set for the test.

“We’ve been hearing a lot from our guests about their desire for a lighter veggie option, so we’re excited to see what they think,” Rosati said.

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected]

Follow him on Twitter: @foodwriterdiary

About the Author

Bret Thorn

Senior Food Editor, Nation's Restaurant News

Senior Food & Beverage Editor

Bret Thorn is senior food & beverage editor for Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality for Informa’s Restaurants and Food Group, with responsibility for spotting and reporting on food and beverage trends across the country for both publications as well as guiding overall F&B coverage. 

He is the host of a podcast, In the Kitchen with Bret Thorn, which features interviews with chefs, food & beverage authorities and other experts in foodservice operations.

From 2005 to 2008 he also wrote the Kitchen Dish column for The New York Sun, covering restaurant openings and chefs’ career moves in New York City.

He joined Nation’s Restaurant News in 1999 after spending about five years in Thailand, where he wrote articles about business, banking and finance as well as restaurant reviews and food columns for Manager magazine and Asia Times newspaper. He joined Restaurant Hospitality’s staff in 2016 while retaining his position at NRN. 

A magna cum laude graduate of Tufts University in Medford, Mass., with a bachelor’s degree in history, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Thorn also studied traditional French cooking at Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine in Paris. He spent his junior year of college in China, studying Chinese language, history and culture for a semester each at Nanjing University and Beijing University. While in Beijing, he also worked for ABC News during the protests and ultimate crackdown in and around Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Thorn’s monthly column in Nation’s Restaurant News won the 2006 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award for best staff-written editorial or opinion column.

He served as president of the International Foodservice Editorial Council, or IFEC, in 2005.

Thorn wrote the entry on comfort food in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, 2nd edition, published in 2012. He also wrote a history of plated desserts for the Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, published in 2015.

He was inducted into the Disciples d’Escoffier in 2014.

A Colorado native originally from Denver, Thorn lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Bret Thorn’s areas of expertise include food and beverage trends in restaurants, French cuisine, the cuisines of Asia in general and Thailand in particular, restaurant operations and service trends. 

Bret Thorn’s Experience: 

Nation’s Restaurant News, food & beverage editor, 1999-Present
New York Sun, columnist, 2005-2008 
Asia Times, sub editor, 1995-1997
Manager magazine, senior editor and restaurant critic, 1992-1997
ABC News, runner, May-July, 1989

Education:
Tufts University, BA in history, 1990
Peking University, studied Chinese language, spring, 1989
Nanjing University, studied Chinese language and culture, fall, 1988 
Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine, Cértificat Elémentaire, 1986

Email: [email protected]

Social Media:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bret-thorn-468b663/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bret.thorn.52
Twitter: @foodwriterdiary
Instagram: @foodwriterdiary

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