Shake, rattle and roll: Shake Shack opening drive-through location in Bloomingdale

Shake Shack fans are accustomed to standing in line for their griddled smash burgers and crinkle-cut fries.

The New York-based burger chain is opening a much-hyped restaurant in Bloomingdale, and here's the special sauce: you won't have to leave your car to pick up a patty.

A drive-through Shake Shack is coming to Army Trail Road and Springfield Drive. The restaurant also will have indoor seating and a patio for up to 24.

For the uninitiated, Shake Shack serves Angus burgers on pillowy potato buns, crinkle-cut fries bathed in cheese sauce, flat-top Vienna Beef hot dogs, chicken sandwiches and frozen custard.

Bloomingdale trustees are set to review the restaurant project during a committee of the whole meeting this month. A final vote is expected in February.

Shake Shack wants to "get moving as quickly as possible and hopefully break ground in the early part of spring," said Sean Gascoigne, the village's director of community and economic development.

Shake Shack has been popping up in Chicago's suburbs in recent years. An Oak Brook restaurant debuted in 2018. The Vernon Hills Shake Shack in late 2020 became the chain's first location to get a drive-up window, a pandemic-era necessity.

"As we began to focus on the importance of accessibility and choice, the decision was made to incorporate into preexisting shacks such as Vernon Hills," Steph So, the chain's vice president of digital experience, said at the time.

In Bloomingdale, drivers will pull up to two areas for ordering and ultimately merge back to one pickup lane.

The plan commission has endorsed the redevelopment of the site on Army Trail Road, now home to the Old Second National Bank. The corner building will be torn down to make way for the 3,800-square-foot restaurant and a new Second National bank with a much smaller footprint.

The reaction to the restaurant opening news has been "extremely positive and people are super excited to have something like this in Bloomingdale," Gascoigne said.

Shake Shack started as a humble hot dog cart in New York City's Madison Square Park. The chain has grown to more than 285 restaurants in the United States and over 145 locations around the world. Shake Shack proclaims it's a "modern-day roadside burger stand."

A company spokeswoman could not be reached for comment.