(JTA) — Shake Shack, the American fast-casual restaurant chain famous for its burgers and milkshakes, is heading to Israel.

The chain announced Wednesday on social media that a location will open next year in Tel Aviv, which has a robust burger scene — including local chains such as Moses, Burgerim and Black Bar ‘n’ Burger and international franchises including Burger King and McDonald’s. Over the next decade, the company announced, it plans to open 15 locations across Israel.

Shake Shack launched in 2001 as a cart in New York City’s Madison Square Park, as a fast-casual concept from the high-dining impresario Danny Meyer, who grew up in St. Louis and graduated from John Burrough’s School. He has attributed parts of his leadership style to his Jewish background and Sunday school at Temple Emanuel, where his father was one of the founders.

“What I learned there was Jewish ethics and Jewish culture. I moved to New York and my Jewish friends couldn’t believe that I never had a bar mitzvah but to the degree that there is a strong Jewish culture of giving back more than you took, I got that,” said Meyer, in 2017 at the opening of the St. Louis Shake Shack in the Central West End.

Shake Shack in Tel Aviv

It was during that 2017 opening of the St. Louis Shake Shack that Jewish Light reporter Eric Berger asked Meyer if had plans to open a location in Israel. He said he had no plans to open in Israel, which he had just visited for the first time.

Meyer told Berger that he had spotted a kiosk that “looked an awful lot like Shake Shack” while walking Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv, where the median is dotted with tiny cafes.

“As it turned out, it was opened by a guy who worked for me many years ago,” he said. “And on a rainy day, they were packed.”

Shake Shack is the latest in a series of chains to open its doors in Israel. The convenience store chain 7-Eleven opened its first franchise in Israel this year, in Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff Center mall. And the partners who brought Shake Shack to Israel also recently struck an initial deal to bring the global cafe franchise Pret A Manger to the country.

Past openings of major international food and drink franchises in Israel have had a mixed record. McDonald’s did not open any Israeli outposts until 1993 due to boycotts from the Arab world; now, it offers some kosher outposts but does not operate in Israeli West Bank settlements. In 2021, Ben & Jerry’s, the U.S. ice cream chain, announced that it would not sell in what it termed “Occupied Palestinian Territory,” sparking a court battle that ended with the pints still on grocery shelves in Israeli settlements.

And after a brief experiment in Israel, Starbucks closed down its operations there two decades ago, due to what analysts attributed to competition from more established local cafes.