Shake Shack Arrives

Shake Shack's CEO dishes on Houston arrival, the future, and what makes a great burger

A day many Houstonians have been waiting for has finally arrived. A year after rumors of its arrival first circulated, 11 months after the rumors were confirmed, and three weeks after a pop-up drew 1,200 people to The Pass & Provisions, Shake Shack opens in The Galleria at 11 am Friday morning.

At a VIP preview party Thursday night, the restaurant showed off its Michael Hsu-designed space. Just as he did for restaurants like Uchi, Hunky Dory, and Oporto Fooding House, Hsu has created a Shake Shack that stands out from the crowd. The wood-paneled walls give it a feeling that’s different from other restaurants in the mall.

Located next to Cheesecake Factory, Houston’s first Shake Shack has its own street side entrance so that diners don’t have to enter the mall, although coming in from the mall will be a requirement for anyone who self parks. The restaurant’s moss-covered living wall helps identify it from the outside.

Turning to the food, the basic menu will be familiar to anyone who’s visited the restaurant in cities across the world. It all starts with a basic ShackBurger, a classic, diner-style cheeseburger that’s affordably priced at only $5.29 and a double cheeseburger is $8.09. Since the patties are thin, adding meat — either in the former of the bacon-topped SmokeShack or the only-in-Texas Lockhart Link burger (topped with a jalapeno-cheese sausage from iconic Texas barbecue joint Kreuz Market) makes for a more substantial meal.

In addition to beef, Shake Shack serves a crispy chicken sandwich, a mushroom burger, hot dogs, and a variety of desserts, including three frozen custard-based concretes that utilize ingredients from Fluff Bake Bar, Greenway Coffee, and Heights doughnut shop Morningstar.

Looking for a little more insight into Shake Shack and its plans for Houston, CultureMap spoke to CEO Randy Garutti. Read on for his explanation of why it took so long for the company to open in Houston, what makes Shake Shack different from its competitors, and what he prefers to order.

CultureMap: What took you so long to open in Houston?

Randy Garutti: It’s funny, I was talking to some people back home today. This is one of the greatest cities in America, maybe the highest growing city in America. I was just telling these guys, we struggled for years with where to go. We went back and forth on, should we go to the Galleria? Should we be in the mall? Out of the mall? This big luxury box right here, we were going to be in that at one point. We were going to be in River Oaks at one point. We were looking at Montrose.

It just took us time to settle in, and it sort of played out in a good way. The first Shack in Texas was in Austin, we just opened this summer in Dallas. We finally made it. It took too long, but we’re excited to be here.

CM: What directed you to the Galleria?

RG: I think the confluence of everything that happens here, meaning: great neighborhood that has incredible daytime population of offices, incredible local scene, and tourist scene. We’re going to continue to grow. We’re going to do some more Shacks here. We’re going to concentrate on this one. I think this one gave us the best chance to launch in a fun, busy spot where everyone can be here: kids, friends, workers. It kind of fits for everybody.

CM: You’ve already announced that Rice village is next. How many Shake Shacks do you anticipate opening in the Houston area?

RG: We’re not the kind of company that comes in and opens a ton of restaurants immediately. It took us five years to open the second Shake Shack. As much as we’ve grown, we kind of like to spread it out and really have some fun over time. This location will be this year. Rice Village will be next year. Probably the next thing we would do would be in 2018; we haven’t identified that yet.

This is not a franchise business. We own all the Shacks. It’s not a company that we just come in and say we’re taking over a city. We want to just have a great community gathering place here. We do that right, hopefully Rice Village will be good. If we do that right, hopefully there will be another one. We take our time.

CM: How many people are you expecting per day in the beginning?

RG: There will be days when we open that we get a couple thousand people coming. We’re always humbled by the response. We never go in believing we deserve anything but a few people walking in, and we’re going to work hard to bring them all in. I expect this weekend will be pretty busy.

CM: What did you learn about Houston in terms of how Shake Shack fits in with what we already have?

RG: Well, there’s obviously a deeply ingrained burger culture. You got your Texas favorites. You got Whataburger. We’ve loved seeing in this sort of last five-ish years the incredible chef scene that’s popped up. Places like Underbelly, a place like The Pass & Provisions.

You know Shake Shack well enough to know we’re not just a burger joint. I’ve been working with Danny Meyer for 17 years. I’ve been running all of our fine dining restaurants. One day we had a little accident, a hot dog cart, turned into Shake Shack. No one ever dreamed we’d be here.

We always just try to connect with the great chefs in the city and the great food that’s happening and the great cities in the world. The world is a collection of great cities now, when you think about it, and Shake Shack is trying to be that community gathering place for great value, a $5 burger, that’s just simple.

We’re not trying to do gourmet, crazy stuff. We’re just trying to be your favorite classic cheeseburger. We do some cool stuff, but we do it from a fine dining ethos. You look at the chocolates we use, you look at the way we make our custard, the cuts in our no hormone, antibiotic-free beef, the things we do are just done really simply, and at a really high standard, at a good price. You can take your kids, your buddies, have a beer, and it’s just meant to be easy.

CM: How did you pick Fluff Bake Bar and Morningstar for the Houston custards?

RG: Mark Rosati is amazing. He’s our culinary director but really our tastemaker. Whenever we go to a city, we say to ourselves, alright, what’s going to be the cool doughnut, the cool coffee, the cool whatever. Mark goes around. He meets with all the places he’s heard about. When he bonds with them, it just pops. That’s what we felt made the most sense for this restaurant.

CM: What is it that sets you apart from companies like Smashburger and 5 Guys?

RG: Without naming other people’s names, I respect everyone else’s companies, it’s the feeling. We didn’t invent the hamburger. We’re not going to be the last people to make a great hamburger. What we do is we put it together in a context, a place, sincere hospitable people, great design, great ingredients, at a price that rivals everyone you might mention.

It’s just a better quality experience. I think people come to Shake Shack because of the experience, the connection, and just knowing what we’re putting into the food. It makes it ok to bring your kids to have a burger. People less and less are eating traditional fast food, but they still want a great burger. That’s what we’ve been bringing for 12 years, and it seems to be working.

CM: What’s your Shake Shack order?

RG: That was an easy question for me to answer until about a year ago when we introduced the chicken shack. Now I can’t not order the chicken shack, because I love it. I used to be Smoke Shack, cheese fries, and a black and white shake. Now, I get a Chicken Shack, and I’ve got to get a cheeseburger of some kind, so I usually try to convince someone to split a Smoke Shack with me, cheese fries.

The shakes we’re doing are going to be fun. In a couple of weeks, we’ll be flipping to our holiday shakes. We’ll be doing this pumpkin pie shake, Christmas cookie, and chocolate peppermint. Those change seasonally, so I’ll usually add in one of those.

Shake Shack is open from 11 am until 10 pm Sunday through Thursday and 11 am until 11 pm Friday and Saturday. Portions of this interview have been edited for length and clarity.

The Lockhart Link burger topped with jalapeno cheese sausage from Kreuz Market.

Photo by Eric Sandler

The Lockhart Link burger topped with jalapeno cheese sausage from Kreuz Market.

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Food trends

Halal BBQ is booming in Texas, with Houston making a major contribution

Levant BBQ

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At 9 am on a scorching Saturday in June, nearly 100 people were already lined up outside Goldee’s BBQ, a small, wooden-shack restaurant in Fort Worth.

First in line was 30-year-old Thanh Huynh, who had been sitting in a lawn chair on the joint’s rustic porch since 6:30 am.

“I have, like, a whole list, and I’m going to spend lots of money here. It’ll be worth it,” he said, laughing while rattling off a long order of meats and sides from his phone’s Notes app as a sweet, smoky scent from nearby pits hung in the air.

Opened in 2020 by a group of his friends, the restaurant was named the No. 1 barbecue spot in the state by Texas Monthly a year later, and then won a Bib Gourmand award from the prestigious Michelin Guide, given for “great food at a great value.”

The restaurant serves classic Texas barbecue like craft pork belly, sausage, and ribs. But it also offers halal brisket, turkey, and lamb.

"Halal" means meat raised and butchered in accordance with Islamic guidelines. It refers to the method in which the animals are slaughtered, one that focuses on humane treatment, cleanliness, and acknowledging the value of life — similar in concept to kosher food in Judaism.

A growing number of halal places have opened around Fort Worth in recent years, and there are also non-halal restaurants that use halal beef, such as burger institution Kincaid's, the new Burger Vault in Keller, and the forthcoming Tick Tock Taco in Colleyville.

Growing Texas trend
At a time when Republican leaders are increasingly targeting the state’s growing Muslim communities, halal barbecue joints like Goldee’s are thriving in Texas. Across the state, Muslim pitmasters are gaining recognition for putting their own spin on one of Texas’ most iconic culinary traditions.

At least a dozen barbecue spots now serve halal meats, including Yearby’s Barbecue & Waterice, run by Black Muslim couple CJ and Sabrina Henley, soon-to-be in Plano; and Levant Mediterranean BBQ, a restaurant with locations in Houston and Frisco that's bringing its menu of smoked beef and lamb to Sugar Land in late 2026 or early 2027. Truboy BBQ, which started as a mail order halal barbecue supplier, opened a brick-and-mortar restaurant in Missouri City last year.

Goldee's Barbecue draws halal diners. Goldee's Barbecue/ Facebook

“Now there are so many options, and for us to have highly rated barbecue, it’s a blessing,” said Haris Ghaffar, who drove an hour from Celina and stood in 90-degree weather for nearly two hours with a friend for the halal options at Goldee’s.

Growing up in the 1990s, Ghaffar said a McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish sandwich was one of the few halal meals he could eat while dining out. Back then, halal food was seen as serving a small community. Today, it’s a multibillion-dollar industry that’s part of the American culinary mainstream, said James Beard Award‑winning food writer Farhan Mustafa, who wrote about the rise of American halal barbecue for Bon Appétit magazine in 2025.

“Halal food is American food,” said Mustafa, who is based in Seattle. “It belongs on your plate. It belongs in the casual chat. It belongs in hip hop tracks. It’s the most American thing there is.”

Mustafa said Muslims are part of a growing list of communities putting their stamp on Texas barbecue. “Whether they’re first, second or third-generation Muslims or Muslim Americans or just Americans, they’re bringing what they know and what excites them,” he said.

More than salt and pepper
Texas barbecue is typically defined by salt-and-pepper brisket and pork ribs, but this new crop of halal pitmasters are adding inventive twists, often based on their own family heritages.

Zain Shafi, a pitmaster and co-owner of Goldee’s, previously ran Sabar Barbecue, a food truck that offered Pakistani-infused halal dishes, such as brisket with rub that included spices like bay leaf and coriander.

Sabar was nominated for Best BBQ in CultureMap's 2025 Tastemaker Awards, and made the list of Texas Monthly's Top 50 Barbecue Restaurants of 2025. The restaurant was also featured in a recently published BBQ book Texas BBQ: The Art of Low and Slow. He closed Sabar in December 2025 after two years.

Sabar BBQ Sabar Barbecue offered a Pakistani twist on BBQ. Sabar Barbecue

Shafi brought tandoori smoked turkey to Goldee’s menu. And sourcing halal cuts, he said, was a natural choice because they are “the highest quality” meats.

Goldee’s chef and part owner Nupohn Inthanousay also blends his Laotian heritage, serving a smoked Lao “sai oua” sausage with sticky rice and a fiery, tangy dipping sauce.

At Kafi BBQ in Irving, owner Salahodeen Abdul-Kafi brings halal Wagyu beef and Iraqi spices to classic Texas barbecue, challenging what he said is the “traditional old guard of Texas barbecue.”

“My goal at Kafi BBQ is to make the best barbecue in Texas,” Abdul-Kafi said. “I have not been shy about that at all, and making the best barbecue in Texas does not necessarily have to include pork.”

A former Silicon Valley tech worker, he moved to Texas six years ago in search of a Muslim community. On weekends in his backyard, he smoked brisket for friends. By 2024, he bought a smoker and opened Kafi BBQ.

He said he spent months testing and perfecting recipes and finding local producers. Abdul-Kafi attributes his obsession with crafting a stand-out menu to the Islamic concept of “Ihsan”— an Arabic term meaning doing something with excellence for the sake of God.

On a Sunday afternoon this summer, the restaurant’s red booths were packed with diners, drawn to menu items like the 13-spice Wagyu brisket, pomegranate-glazed beef belly burnt ends and Iraqi-inspired spicy beef sausage.

“That sausage, I’d probably put it at the top sausage I’ve ever had, and we eat barbecue a lot. This place is unique,” said Jonathan Tate, a Fort Worth resident who came to Kafi BBQ with a friend after reading about it on a Facebook foodie group.

“I don’t necessarily have to have it halal, but it’s nice to know they took good care of the food, the meat,” his friend Jon Sklar said, before going back in line to order oxtail.

Meat at Kafi BBQ in Irving. Kafi BBQ

'We love barbecue'
Although political rhetoric against Muslims in Texas has become increasingly hostile — some GOP lawmakers even discussed a ban on halal food at a conference this month — pitmasters like Abdul-Kafi see the rise of halal barbecue as an effective counterargument.

“It’s an example of exactly the opposite of what the Islamophobes talk about, right?” he said. “They say, ‘oh, Muslims don’t integrate, they stay alone, they don’t help society and all this stuff.’ And it’s like, I’m sitting here contributing to the most well-known cuisine of Texas.”

One of the diners at Kafi BBQ, Houston native Muhammad Sohail, 23, said the restaurant reflects who he is — a proud Texan and Muslim. “This place is super important because I can see halal within the culture of Texas, which is my culture at this point,” Sohail said. “We love the food. We love meat. We’re Muslims and we love barbecue.”

After finishing a big lunch with 10 relatives, Areeba Ali, a Dallas native of Indian heritage, said the restaurant’s appeal cuts across communities, which she said is evidence that halal barbecue isn’t a niche but resonates broadly with Texans. “If you look around in the restaurant, you see everybody in there — it’s not just one demographic in there,” Ali said.

For Mustafa, that success is ultimately a testament to the resilience of Muslim American communities.

“No matter how much they try to erase us, our food is here to stay,” he said. “You will see the power of just good food and the fact that most people really seem to understand that this is just as American as anything else.”

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This story was written and produced by Religion News Service and distributed by The Associated Press. It also includes information from the CultureMap archives.

halal halal barbecue muslim communities pitmasters religion texas texas barbecue trends culinary traditions goldee's barbecue

Shake Shack Arrives

Shake Shack's CEO dishes on Houston arrival, the future, and what makes a great burger

The Lockhart Link burger topped with jalapeno cheese sausage from Kreuz Market.

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Food trends

Halal BBQ is booming in Texas, with Houston making a major contribution