Shake Shack Will Sell Eel Burgers in NYC Next Week

Shake Shack taps England’s famed chef Fergus Henderson

It’s a meat match made in heaven, with chef Fergus Henderson putting his spin on the Shackburger. On Friday, September 15 and Saturday, September 16, Henderson will be in town repping his acclaimed restaurant St. John with an eel burger, doughnuts, and the restaurant’s wine. The Madison Square Park Shake Shack will serve a $9.99 smoked eel burger topped with bacon, pickled red onion, crème fraiche, horseradish, and watercress, as well as vanilla custard doughnuts ($3.99) and red and white wine produced in France for St. John. Henderson’s appearance is sure to draw long lines — Eater’s meat master Nick Solares calls St. John his favorite restaurant in the world.

Some Starbucks in NYC will have whiskey-flavored coffee

Starbucks will make New Yorkers’ mornings a little more boozy-tasting with the addition of whiskey barrel-aged cold brew to the menu. Sold only at the 10 Waverly Place and 1142 Madison Avenue stores, the drink is made by steeping unroasted Sulawesi coffee beans from Indonesia in old whiskey-aging oak barrels. The beans soak up the flavor, and then once they’re roasted, the alcohol is killed off but the flavor remains. It hits stores on Tuesday, September 12.

Robert Sietsema

“Ornately swagged” burgers and hot dogs in Queens

This week, Ligaya Mishan revels in the excess offered at Prontito, a Colombian hot dog and burger shop in Elmhurst, Queens at 40-25 Forley Street. Here, the piled-high renditions will make you “toddle heavily, happily home,” she writes, particularly recommending the cholado, super perro hot dog, hamburguesa Prontitos, and loaded fries.

Community Board 3 zeroes in on Hell Square

It its continued quest to clean up so-called Hell Square — that crowded, rowdy bar zone on the Lower East Side — Community Board 3 has put together a committee to assess the link between bar density and public health and safety. The committee will report its findings at a meeting next week in the interest of seeing what should be done. Stay tuned.

Van Leeuwen rolls into FiDi

Ice cream truck hit Van Leeuwen keeps the expansion rolling, this time with a new scoop shop at 224 Front Street in the Financial District. It’s now open, but a grand opening party on Saturday, September 9 will have dollar scoops from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. For reference, that’s a $4.50 savings per scoop. This is the sixth Van Leeuwen location — not including the trucks — with two more to come soon on the Lower East Side and in Greenpoint Landing.

Openings and coming attractions all around Manhattan

Here comes Hairy Lemon, the American-Irish comfort food pub replacing now-closed Croxley Ales at 28 Avenue B. In other East Village news, a location of coffee shop The Bean has taken over the old St. Mark’s Bookshop space at 136 East 3rd Street. Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the city, a Mexican restaurant called Guacamole is opening this week at 768 Amsterdam Avenue at 97th Street.

Shanghai will soon have octopus fusilli

Midtown Italian hit Marea — most famous for its fusilli with red wine-braised octopus and bone marrow — is expanding to Shanghai come early 2018. Here’s a look at what locals have in store: