It's been a bad burger year for Brooklyn, what with Schnäck shuttering, Queens winning the Burger Battle of the Boroughs, and so forth — but it just got a lot better. The Daily News says a mobile Shake Shack is coming to downtown Brooklyn. “The Brooklyn truck could set up shop in the MetroTech plaza for lunch by the end of the summer. The truck is expected to hit other spots on weekends and at night,” the News reports. Borough President Marty Markowitz, as can be imagined, was beside himself with joy. “As borough president, since it's my sworn duty to ensure quality food in Brooklyn, I would be happy to offer my services and those of my staff as daily food tasters,” he tells the paper. It isn't just good news for Brooklyn, either — if the truck comes into being and is a success, why would Danny Meyer stop with one mobile Shake Shack? Could we see a future where every neighborhood had its own bewheeled burger and custard station? A new era in New York burgerdom could be dawning!

Shake Shack to Shake Up Brooklyn [NYDN]
Related: Harry's Water Taxi Beach Wins the Burger Battle of the Boroughs
It's the End of the Line for Schnäck

In a bittersweet coda to the Schnäck saga, the restaurant's Long Island City sister won the Burger Battle of the Boroughs last night in the Astoria World Manor. The Schnäck burger now lives only at the Water Taxi Beach, which opens Sunday, and owner Harry Hawk competed with six other teams for burger honors last night. The field included Coals from the Bronx, Resto and Brgr from Manhattan, the Farm on Adderley and 67 Burger from Brooklyn, and Joe's Bestburger from Queens.

We’re saddened, but not surprised, to learn of the demise of Schnäck, the Red Hook hamburger-and-hot-dog mecca that was one of our favorite additions to the Brooklyn restaurant scene — nay, to American vernacular cooking! Co-owner Harry Hawk tells us that the end is nigh, but he will not give an expiration date. We hear through the grapevine that the proximate cause of the closing is a lost lease, but having seen ever-thinning crowds over the past year, we are more likely to believe that the poor location and awful service softened the victim up for the final blow. Schnäck is a resilient entity, however, and it would not surprise us to see it pop up somewhere else; in the meantime, Schnäck burgers, or their near equivalents, will continue to be available at Water Taxi Beach in Long Island City.

Such is our reverence for Patsy Grimaldi, the pizza patriarch behind Grimaldi’s, that when we heard word, via Slice, that he had come out of retirement to cook slices at the Aviator Sports Complex at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, we immediately began saving gas money to make the trip. The place is so remote — all the way down Flatbush Avenue, just before the Marine Parkway Bridge — that you practically need to be Hernando de Soto to find it. It’s a kid’s paradise, with two NHL-size ice rinks, indoor soccer, basketball courts, and the rest. But for the unathletic children, of course, the real draw is the food court, where you can find Schnäck burgers, cheesecake from Junior’s, Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory desserts, and, yes, Patsy’s pizza. Are those slices worth the epic journey?

Red Hook's haute fast-food joint Schnäck has been popular with children and drunks since it opened. But that just won't cut it anymore. "The neighborhood is changing and expanding," owner Harry Hawk says, "and we have to change and expand with it." In an effort to feed Red Hook's new families, whom Hawk sees as "looking for and needing an affordable meal," the eatery will be adding entrées to its menu, including steak, spareribs, chicken dinners, and other comfort-food standards. Schnäck is expanding in another way, too: The restaurant now runs a burger concession at the food court in Aviator Sports and Recreation, the new sports complex at Floyd Bennett Field — where more children and (postgame) drunks await.