Shake Shack opening first East End eatery in June, plans 3 other restaurants on Long Island

Shake Shack is opening a new restaurant next month in Riverhead, the chain's first on the East End, as the burger business continues its expansion across Long Island.

The Riverhead restaurant, which will open June 30 at Tanger Outlets, is among four that the fast-casual chain will open on Long Island by the end of 2027, a spokeswoman said.

The Riverhead restaurant will be at 1704 Tanger Mall Dr. in a 3,100-square-foot building.

The other three restaurants will open in Valley Stream, East Meadow and Commack.

Shake Shack has seven restaurants on Long Island, including an eatery that opened in the Westfield Shopping Center in Selden in November and another at The Shops at SunVet in Holbrook in April.

The chain is planning to expand its U.S. footprint to 1,500 company-operated eateries. "Expanding on Long Island is a natural extension of that strategy,” spokeswoman Kate DeMarco said in an email. 

The company is pushing fast expansion, despite rising expenses, including beef costs, cutting into its sales amid consumers' growing economic concerns.

Of the Manhattan-based chain's roughly 685 locations, about 440 are in the United States, with the remaining 245 in Europe, Asia and Mexico.  

The burger chain is opening two other eateries this year, in Valley Stream and East Meadow.

The eatery at 2034 Green Acres Rd. in Green Acres Mall is among several incoming restaurants in a renovated section of the mall that is undergoing a revamp.

The East Meadow restaurant at 1902 Hempstead Tpke. is a drive-thru. The Town of Hempstead in October approved building plans for the 3,537-square-foot, freestanding restaurant, town spokesman Casey Sammon said in an email.

The chain plans to open a restaurant next year in Commack, at 120 Crooked Hill Rd., DeMarco said. The 3,553-square-foot eatery will have a drive-thru and outdoor seating, according to plans submitted to the Town of Smithtown. The town board approved the site plan in April last year, Peter Hans, planning director for the town's planning department, said in an email.

Shake Shack opened 45 company-operated restaurants last year and plans to open 60 to 65, this year, according to the chain.

Industry 'confronting headwinds'

Shake Shack's total revenue in the first quarter of this year was $366.7 million, up 14.3% compared with the same quarter last year.

But the company had an operating loss of $2.6 million in the first quarter of this year, compared with operating income of $2.8 million in the same period last year.

Shake Shack’s earnings in the quarter were negatively impacted by inclement weather and the company’s investments in new store openings, CEO and director Robert M. Lynch told analysts during a quarterly earnings call May 7. The war in the Middle East also affected sales growth, since some licensed locations in the region closed, some temporarily, due to the conflict, Shake Shack's head of investor relations, Alison Sternberg, told analysts.

Higher beef costs also were an issue but the chain took steps to offset some of those expenses, she said.

Labor management strategies and cost improvements in procuring inventory have helped offset those costs, she said.

Shake Shack continues to generate strong cash flow amid aggressive growth in its number of restaurants, said Jim Sanderson, managing director and research analyst covering restaurants at Northcoast Research, an equity research firm in Cleveland. 

This is significant given consumers’ growing concerns about the economy and the rising cost of living, he said. 

By Tory N. Parrish

tory.parrish@newsday.comToryParrish1

Tory N. Parrish covers retail and small business for Newsday. She has worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.