Restaurant news: Shake Shack making plans to open in Jacksonville

Shake Shack is coming to Jacksonville.

Known for its fresh-never-frozen hamburgers, crinkle fries and signature shakes, the New York City-based fast-casual restaurant chain plans to open in Jacksonville in 2024, Shake Shack spokesperson Kate DeMarco confirmed to the Times-Union on Tuesday.

The restaurant is set to open at the St. Johns Town Center in the space now occupied by M Shack, the Jacksonville Daily Record first reported on Monday.

M Shack, the gourmet burger and milkshake concept developed by Jacksonville chefs David and Matthew Medure, will not renew its lease at the Town Center when it expires on March 1, Matthew Medure told the Daily Record. The restaurant — one of just a handful of locally-owned restaurants at the sprawling Southside regional retail center — opened at its 10281 Midtown Parkway spot in December 2013.

The Town Center location will be the first for the chain in Northeast Florida. In the state, Shake Shack has nearly 20 restaurants, including locations in Winter Park, Orlando (5), Tampa, Sarasota, Palm Beach Gardens, Boca Raton (2), Fort Lauderdale, Sunrise, Aventura, Miami (3), Coral Gables and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Nationwide, the chain founded 19 years ago has more than 300 locations.

On the menu at Shake Shack

Shake Shack’s burgers are made from a blend of 100% Angus beef and include the original ShackBurger, a cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato and “ShackSauce,” as well as the Avocado Bacon Burger, Smoke Shack (with applewood-smoked bacon, chopped cherry peppers and ShackSauce), Spicy ShackMeister (with a hot pepper blend, crispy onions, chopped cherry peppers and ShackSauce), ‘Shroom Burger, Veggie Shack and more.

Also on the menu are a selection of fried chicken sandwiches: the Chicken Shack, Avocado Bacon Chicken and Hot Chicken.

Its crispy crinkle-cut fries are available as Cheese Fries, Bacon Cheese Fries and Spicy Cheese Fries with Ranch.

More restaurants in the works: Five new restaurants are planned for the Town Center. Here's what we know.

But no trip to Shake Shack is complete without one of its signature shakes, featuring premium ice cream made in-house daily with real cane sugar and cage-free eggs, including Triple Chocolate Brownie Shake, Oreo Cookie Funnel Cake Shake, Cookie and Cream Shake, Strawberry Shake and more. (And for your four-legged friends, there’s the Poochi-ini, made with Shackburger dog biscuits and vanilla custard.)

When it opens, Shake Shack will join a number of other restaurants at the Town Center known for their shakes, including BurgerFi (2014), Yard Milkshake Bar (2022) and Sugar Factory (2023).

The future of M Shack

The pending closing of M Shack at the Town Center doesn’t mean the end of the concept first launched in 2011 in Atlantic Beach and expanded to the Town Center (2013), Five Points (2014) and Nocatee (2016).

M Shack's menu includes all-natural, hormone-free beef burgers, all-beef hot dogs, hand-cut fries, and gourmet milkshakes — both with and without alcohol. 

The Nocatee location “has a long life ahead,” Matthew Medure told the Daily Record, saying that he would have liked to sign a 5-year extension to his Town Center lease, but that was not an option with the mall’s owner, Simon. Its Five Points and Atlantic Beach restaurants closed in 2019 and 2021, respectively.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Shake Shack plans opening at St. Johns Town Center in Jacksonville