Soon, you may no longer have to fly to New York for your fill of a Shake Shack burger. We heard from an F&B industry insider that the famous burger chain from the Big Apple is rumoured to have awarded licensing rights to Korean F&B conglomerate SPC Group, who’s behind bakery café chain Paris Baguette, to set up Shake Shack in Singapore. After all, the burger brand has also partnered SPC to open Shake Shack outlets in Korea — where Paris Baguette bakes the chain’s pillowy potato flour burger buns, which Shake Shack founder Danny Meyer tells us exclusively “are as good as the ones in New York”.
The restaurateur extraordinaire, the CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group which owns other acclaimed NY eateries like Gramercy Tavern and Union Square Café, is currently in Singapore to give a talk at the Restaurant Association of Singapore. And we met him over dinner at mod Peranakan private diner Fat Fuku.
While he remains coy about confirming if Shake Shack is indeed opening in Singapore, he says, “I’d like to, it’s a possibility. My guys have visited Singapore thrice for site trips and they loved it here. It’s all about finding a good licensee.”
If our industry source is accurate, then that licensee is the Korean-owned SPC Group.
And if the rumours are true, Shake Shack Singapore’s first outlet will be at the upcoming Jewel Changi Airport, the ambitious five-storey complex connected to Terminal 1 which will house about 300 shops, food and beverage outlets, an indoor waterfall and a five-storey garden. The fancy glass-covered building — owned by Changi Airport Group and CapitaLand Mall Asia — is slated to open early 2019.