In tale of two Shacks, Stockyards’ Love might have edge on Shake

The Love Shack opened as Texas’ answer to New York’s Shake Shack: a walk-up, cash-only stand serving a solid, simple burger.

Now that the Love Shack is in its 10th year — yes, really — Dallas-Fort Worth can finally compare the Shacks without a trip to Manhattan.

A Shake Shack will open Thursday in Dallas’ Uptown neighborhood.

A check this week showed that Fort Worth’s original Love Shack is up to the challenge, and might be as good as ever.

After nearly a decade of serving cowboys, barrel racers, tourists and kids wearing their first pearl-snap shirts, the Love Shack has settled in as a Stockyards landmark, and chef Tim Love also plans to open a chili parlor nearby.

The Love Shack has added a few amenities since it opened from a simple takeout window next door to the White Elephant Saloon.

First of all, you don’t have to sit in the outdoor beer garden. Diners can come inside the White Elephant and take a barstool. Desserts include a shake ($2.91-$3.23) or first-rate chocolate chip cookies ($1.62).

The menu is bigger than ever: a choice of five chicken sandwiches, five hot dogs and seven burgers, including the signature Dirty Love Burger with bacon, cheese, special sauce and a fried quail egg ($6.47, or $9.24 as a combo with fries and a drink).

There’s a special every month. For August, it’s the CPR (chicken sandwich with pepper jack cheese, pico de gallo and ranch dressing, technically a CPPR).

“Shake Shack is great!” Love said. He was inspired to open his own burger stand after chef Danny Meyer opened the original Shake Shack in 2004 in a park concession stand.

Both are “shacks,” Love said, but they’re “way different”: “We are a mom-and-pop burger joint and they are a $1.6 billion operation.”

There’s also a Love Shack in DFW Airport’s Terminal E. Love’s affiliated restaurant, the Woodshed Smokehouse, also serves the Dirty Love Burger and the crispy chicken sandwich.

The original Love Shack is open for lunch and dinner daily, past midnight Fridays and Saturdays. Go Mondays when traffic is light; 110 E. Exchange Ave., 817-740-8812, loveburgershack.com.

The Shake Shack in Dallas will be open for lunch and dinner daily beginning Thursday at 2500 N. Pearl St.; shakeshack.com.

Northwest dining

The Texan Diner is open, and greater northwest Fort Worth was ready.

Northwest Fort Worth and Haslet diners no longer must drive to Alliance or Saginaw for a traditional, table-service plate-lunch cafe.

The Texan is new, but the flavors are familiar. Vickery Blvd. Cafe chef Curtis James opened the Texan as a second location, with new dinner hours and a new name.

At the Texan, diners line up for James’ Texas-shaped breakfast waffles and homestyle pecan or buttermilk pies.

It’s open for breakfast and lunch daily, and reopens for dinner Tuesdays through Saturdays; 2488 Avondale-Haslet Road (a half-block east of U.S. 287), 682-316-4200, texandiner.com.

Back from break

Vacation roundup:

BBQ on the Brazos in Cresson, one of the new-generation barbecue landmarks, along with Pecan Lodge in Dallas, has reopened after pitmaster John Sanford took a short beak.

BBQ on the Brazos opens from breakfast to midafternoon Tuesdays through Saturdays; 9001 U.S. 377 E., Cresson, 817-396-4758, bbqonthebrazos.com.

Mi Cocinita (My Little Kitchen), the 45-year Tex-Mex cafe in the back yard of a home in south Fort Worth, is on break and will reopen Sept. 7.

Owner Virgie Martinez, daughter of founder Betty Mendez, will work from Sept. 7 through year’s end and then leave the tamale-making to family members; 3509 1/2 Bryan Ave., 817-923-0033, on Facebook, search for Mi Cocinita — My Little Kitchen.

This story was originally published August 29, 2016 at 4:20 PM with the headline "In tale of two Shacks, Stockyards’ Love might have edge on Shake."