In Search of the Shamrock Shake

Little Neck is one of those distant parts of New York City that the condo developers have not reached yet. One can still see privately owned forest land, each about a city block in size, which you can still see here an there along Northern Boulevard. And one can only hope that the parks department can pony up the money to preserve these, the last remaining bits of wild Queens county. It is here on the very edge of the city that one can find what may be the only McDonald's that still sells Shamrock Shakes in March. It is not a particularly pedestrian friendly McDonald's as the only two doors are cut off by the drive through traffic, the front door blocked by a fence that encloses the restaurant's playground which can only be entered from inside. I ask if they have the Shamrock Shake, half expecting to be disappointed as the drink has been scarce in the city for years. The woman behind the counter says yes, but unfortunately while they have plenty of the green crap they use to turn a vanilla shake into the minty Shamrock Shake, they are currently out of the vanilla shake. There was suppose to be a replacement delivery that day which was now hours overdue. The woman behind the counter explains that sales in shakes have go way up in the past week, faster than they can restock the malt or ice cream or whatever it is they use to make the shakes. The green syrup used for the Shamrock Shakes is easy to store and apparently does not need to be refrigerated, hence they had plenty of huge containers worth in a cabinet beneath the coffee dispenser. But the refrigerated unit that stores the vanilla shake itself is only so big and can hold only so much. The designers of the unit not anticipating a run on shakes.

Part of the reason for the run can be blamed on the Web site shamrockshake.com. Each year there is a frantic search among fans of the drink to find the McDonald's that still serves it. New York City is considered dry, one of the areas where the shake is impossible to find. According to the site, the McDonald's company explains the reason as that each restaurant is independently operated. And since it is up to the individual managers to order the shake it is not mandatory for any McDonald's to carry it. Shamrock Shakes.com, alternatively known as Find The Shake, allows readers to contribute sitings of the shake and the location where they fond the shake being sold. Others search the site by typing in their state which narrows down the entries to just their local McDonald's. The Little Neck McDonald's was well publicized.

According to Wikipedia , Shamrock Shakes came out in the mid 1970's, a time when McDonald's was just beginning to expand into what it is today. Using characters like Ronald McDonald, Mayor McCheese and The Hamburgler the restaurant began to appeal to small children who in turn begged their parents to eat there. The strategy worked. Burger King began playing catchup, first with a cartoon king, then with their own creepy looking live action characters that included Sir Shakesalot, The Duke of Doubt, and the magical Burger King himself. Poor Wetson's which basically sold fast foot identical to McDonald's and Burger King but never bothered to create their own child friendly mascots, and as a result lost business leading to bankruptcy. During the burger wars McDonald's sought to do away with Burger King once and for all by expanding the menu to include more of what kids wanted. With the shakes they offered the standard chocolate, vanilla and strawberry but on occasions made available for limited times other flavors. In 1976 they offered a blue shake, supposedly blueberry flavored, so that along with vanilla and strawberry they had red, white and blue shakes available. Around the same time they introduced the Shamrock Shake with a new character, a relative of the Grimace called Uncle O'Grimacey who only bothered to visit McDonaldland in late February to mid March to pitch the drink. Each year in the month leading to St. Patrick's Day the Shamrock Shake returned to the menu like clockwork. By the 1980's O'Grimacey mysteriously disappeared, replaced with a bunch of marginally politically incorrect commercials where patrons turned into dancing Irishmen after no more than a sip of the Shamrock Shake. But soon after the commercials stopped running.

New York became one of those areas where the shake was no longer available. Urban legend says that mayor Rudolf Giuliani had the shake banned or outlawed from being sold in the city, or perhaps found some obscure law on the books from 100 years ago which gave him the authority to have the drink banned. One version of this urban legend says he did this because he though the drink was unhealthy and was making children obese, although I can't imagine that he would have only banned the Shamrock Shake with all the other fattening garbage McDonald's has offered over the years. Another version of this legend says that Giuliani banned the shake due to some Irish league asking him to as it was apparently insulting to Irish people. But the most credible sounding version says that it had been banned because of something called the McShake. McShakes are sold in bars around St. Patrick's Day and are basically the unauthorized adult version of the Shamrock Shake. They are made from mixing Irish Cream, chocolate syrup and vanilla ice cream. The story goes that children were getting drunk off their ass on the stuff mistaking it for the McDonald's version. Giuliani saw it as kiddie bait, a liquor drink that attracted young children and introduced them to the concept of drinking booze at a young age. For some reason the McShake could not be banned, but the Shamrock Shake could. And to avoid the mix up Giuliani had the latter outlawed within city limits. Yet another variation of this version of the urban legend says that unruly drunk revelers at the parade were bringing over McShakes in McDonald's cups and claiming they were Shamrock Shakes to any police officer who asked. Since drinking alcohol during the parade is forbidden the only way to prevent this would be to ban the Shamrock Shake. In other words Giuliani banned the Shamrock Shake because it was a gateway drink to alcoholism.

The problem is that no known law exists on the books preventing McDonald's or anyone else from selling a Shamrock Shake. Giuliani did a lot of dictatorial things during his reign, but banning the Shamrock Shake was not one of them. The reason as to why the shake vanished is much more mundane. In the 70s McDonald's was not as widespread as it is today. The McDonald's restaurants within city limits were far and few. After all, it was still seen as a roadside restaurant, something to be built on a highway out in the middle of nowhere where it would attract the most business. Burger King, Howard Johnson's and Kentucky Fried Chicken were no different. Most of their business also came from families driving by on the highway and deciding to stop. With the expansion in the 80s came pocket sized McDonald's which went into every mall or busy shopping area. These new McDonald's were managed by independent owners who either did not know anything about the Shamrock Shake or who were not interested in ordering a specialty item which may not have sold as well as the regular shakes. The same McDonald's that originally sold the shake continued to bring the drink back every year, but as those original McDonald's gradually went out of business so did their traditions. It is he same story in other cities. Wherever there was mass expansion of McDonald's franchises then the number of new ones that did not sell the shake outranked the original ones who still did.

As I get ready to leave the Little Neck McDonald's in defeat I come up with another idea. Since they still have chocolate shakes in stock then why not make a Chocolate Shamrock Shake? Why didn't anyone else think of this? Mint and chocolate taste better mixed together than vanilla and mint. Unfortunately no one behind the counter will do this. The practical reason is that they do not have the ability to mix the green mint syrup into the chocolate shake without ruining the whole remaining batch of chocolate shake for those who do not want mint in their chocolate. Anyway they would need permission from their manager to make such a major alteration to a menu item and he was not in yet. Oh well. But here is a tip for all of those people looking in vain for a Shamrock Shake. Next December start campaigning your local McDonald's to sell the flavor. If enough regular McDonald's patrons inform the manager in advance they would like to buy Shamrock Shakes then they would most likely order the syrup needed to make it. Coming into the store a week before St. Patrick's Day when it is too late to order the syrup and ordering the Shamrock Shake when it is not in stock is not going to do much. If enough McDonald's patrons made the effort to do this in the months prior to St. Patrick's Day rather then running around at the last minute looking for a store that still sells the shake then it would be a lot easier to find. The Little Neck McDonald's said that they began selling the Shamrock Shake because enough of their regular customers kept asking for it and would even remind them in advance about it. That McDonald's in between the bank and florist on Queens Boulevard that gets it's business from foot traffic going to and from the local department stores, it is not going to have it if it only just hears about it the week before St Patrick's Day when a few random customers finally ask for it.