New York-based Shake Shack recently announced they will close two Houston locations by the end of September. The locations are the original Galleria location, which opened in 2016, and the Montrose location, which opened in 2018, replacing a long-standing Burger King location. According to reports online, Shake Shack indicated the stores were cannibalizing sales from other locations and were underperforming overall. The Montrose location no doubt has the most competition from other Shake Shack outlets, but the lack of a drive-thru window also puts it behind more recently opened Sugar Land, Webster, and Katy locations, which all feature drive-thru lanes. Anecdotally, a recent visit to the Rice Village Shake Shack revealed a still busy restaurant. However, a high price point for a relatively small portion seems to have dissuaded some customers.
The Shake Shack at The Galleria is an ok restaurant at a front location next to The Cheesecake Factory that puts it adjacent to a row of much higher end restaurants. The price at Shake Shake seems to be reasonable, especially for The Galleria, which is refreshing. Shake Shack offers at least two good items that are worth a visit to try. A vanillla frozen custard that is one of few ice creams to remind me of home made ice cream from my youth, and a ‘Shroom burger that is a reasonable portion (i.e. not “huge”) but still very good, unique, and crispy.
I’m sure there were “pedestrian-oriented” reasons given for Shake Shack Montrose not to have a drive-through but even the Burger King drive-through was awkwardly located and dumped directly onto Westheimer. I don’t think the next incarnation will be food, at least not fast food-style food.