Shake Shack's first Long Island drive-thru opens in Selden, with more sites planned next year

Shake Shack’s first Long Island drive-thru opened on Thursday, as the burger chain pushes to expand on the Island and across the United States in the coming year.

The new outpost — Shake Shack’s sixth Long Island location — opened at 618 Middle Country Rd. in Selden at 10:30 a.m., a company spokesperson said.

Even more Shacks are in store for Long Islanders next year. Newsday reported in May that Shake Shack planned to open another four locations on the Island in 2026, including one at the Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, which is undergoing a more than $130 million redevelopment.

"As we expand, we want to look to areas that don't have as much Shack coverage, especially in our great home state," said Joe Kaufman, Shake Shack’s regional marketing manager for New York City and Long Island.

The New York City-based burger chain first opened on Long Island in 2012, at The Gallery at Westbury Plaza in Garden City, Newsday reported. Since 2012, Shake Shack has opened in Lake Grove, Melville, New Hyde Park and Oceanside, according to the company’s website.

Until now, the company lacked a traditional drive-thru on Long Island, Kaufman said.

In 2022, the burger chain experimented with a "drive-up window" at the Oceanside Shake Shack, where customers could pick up app and web orders made in advance, Newsday reported at the time. But it wasn't a typical drive-thru where motorists could make orders over an intercom outside.

Shake Shack’s in Selden will sport two lanes for ordering outside and a digital menu board, plus space to eat inside, according to Shake Shack.

Shake Shack has been increasingly expanding into drive-thru service, with about 39 drive-thrus nationwide by the end of 2024, according to Restaurant Business Magazine.

Shake Shack’s Long Island growth builds on the company’s plans to expand the number of Shacks nationally. The fast-casual chain plans to open between 55 and 60 new restaurants across the U.S. in 2026, said the company's CEO, Rob Lynch,  said during the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Oct. 30.

The burger business brought in $367.4 million in total revenue in the third quarter, a 15.9% increase compared with the same period last year, despite concerns about a slowdown in low-income consumer spending, according to the company’s earnings report.

During the quarter, it opened 13 new company-operated Shake Shacks and seven licensed locations, according to the report.

Shake Shack still has significant runway for expansion because it operates far fewer sites than its major burger rivals, said Jim Sanderson, a restaurant equity analyst and managing director at Northcoast Research. The market remains “wide open” for the chain to add stores, he said, and that growth pipeline is a key factor supporting the company’s stock performance.