Shake Shack has opened its newest Long Island restaurant in East Meadow, bringing a drive-thru and some of the chain's latest late-night hours to 1902 Hempstead Turnpike. The restaurant opened at 10 a.m. with indoor dining alongside a two-lane drive-thru ordering system and digital menu board, giving East Meadow residents a new option for burgers and shakes well into the night.
According to Greater Long Island, the East Meadow Shack is open from 10 a.m. to midnight Sunday through Thursday and stays open until 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, per the company. That puts it among the later-closing Shacks on Long Island, outpacing the hours at the chain's Selden location, which opened in November 2025 and runs daily from 10:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.
The menu leans on the chain's staples — ShackBurgers, crinkle-cut fries and milkshakes — plus rotating limited-time items, including the returning black truffle menu, the same report notes. For an opening-day boost, Shake Shack is giving custom tote bags to its first customers and donating $1 for every sandwich sold at the East Meadow location to Cornell Cooperative Extension of Nassau County, which provides educational programs in agriculture, health, youth development and environmental stewardship.
A Long Island Expansion Years in the Making
The East Meadow Shack didn't appear overnight. Patch reported that the Town of Hempstead Board of Zoning Appeals granted a special use permit for the drive-thru to the incoming tenant in early 2025, and Newsday reported that the Town of Hempstead approved building plans in October for the 3,537-square-foot freestanding restaurant. A company spokeswoman told Newsday in June that the East Meadow and Valley Stream Shacks would both open before the end of the year.
That same Newsday report placed the East Meadow opening within a broader Long Island build-out, with additional 2026 locations planned for The Shops at SunVet in Holbrook, Tanger Outlets in Riverhead and Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, plus another drive-thru slated for Commack in early 2026. The chain has said it intends to have four Long Island restaurants open by the end of 2027, counting Valley Stream, East Meadow and Commack alongside Riverhead.
Drive-Thru Debut Followed Selden's Lead
East Meadow's drive-thru setup mirrors the one Shake Shack rolled out in Selden last November, when the chain opened its first Long Island drive-thru at 618 Middle Country Road. The Greater Long Island report on that opening described the same two-lane ordering system and digital menu board now in use in East Meadow, and noted the Selden debut also came with custom mini tote bags for early guests, per Long Island Restaurants. That opening-day promotion included a $1-per-sandwich donation, though in Selden's case the beneficiary was the For Long Island Food Pantry rather than Cornell Cooperative Extension of Nassau County.
Accounts differ on exactly how the Selden opening is characterized: Greater Long Island described it as the first Long Island drive-thru, while Newsday called it the chain's sixth Long Island location and also flagged it as the brand's first drive-thru on the Island. Reports also diverge on how many Long Island locations Shake Shack now operates — Newsday put the count at seven as of June, while the East Meadow opening report cites nine. Statewide, the chain has grown to 73 locations in New York, according to the East Meadow report.
For now, East Meadow diners have a fresh late-night burger option just off Hempstead Turnpike, with the drive-thru lanes offering an alternative to walking in for a ShackBurger and crinkle-cut fries any night of the week.
