Manhattan real estate is not necessarily logical, and hardly a precise science. But for the most part, basic logic does apply, here. That is, it's easy to see why apartment listings in a certain Manhattan neighborhood are appealing to people looking for Manhattan rental apartments. A subway ride and a brief pub crawl is enough to explain why, say, people want to live in rental apartments in the East Village; a stroll through Central Park and a shopping jaunt at Fairway or Zabar's is enough to figure out what NYC dwellers see in Upper West Side rental listings. But while the appeal of Upper East Side rental listings is plain enough -- Central Park, museums, shopping, you already know all this -- it's about to get a little bit clearer. We're not saying that anyone would move to the Upper East Side because the UES just got its first branch of Danny Meyer's beloved burger joint Shake Shack. We wouldn't say that. But... have you ever been to Shake Shack? It's not impossible, and it's surely not unreasonable.
Will the new location be a success? Yes, of course it will be a success -- there's a reason why Shake Shack has ramped up its expansion so aggressively, to the point where it's hard to keep up with the burgeoning burger empire. So aggressively, in fact, that it makes possible sentences like this one, from DNAInfo's coverage of the Upper East Side Shake Shack opening: "In the past year, Shake Shack, which began as a food cart in Madison Square Park, expanded its operation to the Upper East Side, the Theatre District, Miami and Kuwait."
But while Shake Shacks succeed because they're delicious, they're also serious boons to their neighborhoods. For the same reason that apartments near the subway or rental listings near parks are especially desirable, one that's near one of Manhattan's most deservedly popular dining institutions might see some benefits from that. At the very least, we're sure that The Strathmore and The Colorado aren't unhappy about the arrival of Shake Shack East in their vicinity. In that, they have something in common with everyone living on the UES.
