by Aaron D. Allen, Aaron Allen & Associates
Shake Shack is more than America’s latest gourmet burger sweetheart. It could be the hottest restaurant IPO of 2014. After all, nobody wants to miss out on the next Chipotle. The Denver-based burrito dynamo started out at $42 per share in 2006 and trades at $684 today, even as they continue to raise their menu prices. Following in the cause-oriented, fast-casual footsteps of savvy restaurants like Chipotle and Starbucks, Shake Shack stands a chance at greater fame and fortune by continuing to appeal to millennials but also by opening up to investors.
While Shake Shack may not catapult to the same height of restaurant stardom as Chipotle, the burger chain is definitely due for a big pay day. That would be a well-deserved win for majority owner Danny Meyer of Union Square of Hospitality when the restaurant goes public.