New West Village Shake Shack Will Have Chicken Nuggets

Childhood favorite chicken nuggets have officially made their way to Shake Shack. The homegrown chain will serve the throwback food at its new West Village location, opening tomorrow at 225 Varick St. near Seventh Avenue.

After a very warm reception to a teaser recipe in its cookbook last year, the fast-food restaurant has gone all-in on the snack, serving it with barbecue or honey mustard sauces as a six-piece for $4.39 or 10-piece for $6.39. The nuggets are not frozen and, interestingly, cooked sous-vide. After the West Village launch, select other NYC locations will serve the nuggets later this month, followed by others nationwide in October.

While this launch seems to have been in the works for a while, the name that comes along with them is noteworthy. Called “chick’n bites,” it’s immediately reminiscent of dominant chicken chain Chick-fil-A. Even the photo, above, bears resemblance to Chick-fil-A’s version, below.

Chick-fil-A

Shake Shack has slowly added new items to its menu, which started very simply as a hot dog cart in Madison Park in 2001. In the years since, it’s grown to 184 locations worldwide with newer items such as a fried chicken sandwich, grilled chicken sandwich, and chili on the menu.

More new items are likely to come with the opening of the West Village outpost. They have a so-called “innovation kitchen” here, the idea being that potential new dishes will come be served in NYC first.