More burger joints popping up in Las Vegas

New quick-serve and fast-casual burger joints are popping up in every type of setting in the Las Vegas market these days.

Flippin' Good Burgers and Shakes has opened on East Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas near Container Park.

Habit Burger Grill debuted in Las Vegas debut near the Hughes Center two months ago.

And Shake Shack just opened its second Las Vegas location in Downtown Summerlin last week.

Plus, quick-serve burger chains such as White Castle and Denver-based Smashburger made their Strip debuts within the past year. In fact, Smashburger hopes to expand in Las Vegas and is looking at adding three to five locations.

National fast-casual burger chains such as Habit and Shake Shack like to stake a flag in Las Vegas because it's good for stature for the burger brand while exposing the product to international visitors, said Darren Tristano, executive vice president of Technomic, a Chicago-based market research and consulting company.

"Brands are saying that if we're going to be a national brand, we need a marquee location in Vegas for the stature of the brand," Tristano said.

Generally speaking, the fast-casual burger category is growing and consumers are now used to forking over $10-$14 a burger at sit-down restaurants, Tristano said.

New York City-based Shake Shack opened in New York-New York late last year near the new MGM Resorts International park site on the Strip. It's a hot location for Shake Shack because that park will lead to the new plaza and $375 million, 20,000-seat arena behind the New York-New York parking garage.

The Shake Shack's Strip location serves mostly tourists and visitors, but Shake Shack also wanted a location in the Las Vegas market where it could connect with a local community such as Summerlin.

"We're stoked to open in a community where we can become a part of it. It's a growing area," said Brian Murphy, Shake Shack area director, who helped open the second Las Vegas site.

"The overwhelming majority of guests I spoke with (at the Downtown Summerlin location) haven't even been to the Strip location. This is an opportunity to introduce the Shack to a whole new neighborhood," Murphy said.

He noted it was the 48th Shake Shack to open in the U.S. and new Shacks are scheduled to open in West Hollywood, Calif., and Scottsdale, Ariz., in early 2016.

Xiaoming Hu, the Habit franchisee in Las Vegas, said Las Vegas was a natural home for a Habit restaurant because it's not too far from the company's base in Irvine, Calif.

Murphy said the burger market is stable and will be sticking around.

"Burgers, to me, are not a fad. They've been around for a while. People are realizing there are a lot of different ways to do burgers. Burgers are a staple in the America diet and I don't see that changing any time soon."

Contact reporter Alan Snel at asnel@reviewjournal.com. Find him on Twitter: @BicycleManSnel