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"The chain's first Bay Area location is hiring staff and preparing to open as soon as late October in Palo Alto at 180 El Camino Real in the Stanford Shopping Center; next locations are planned for Larkspur and San Francisco. The new Bay Area restaurants will feature region-specific Shack delicacies made with local ingredients, including a chocolate-on-chocolate concrete made with Mission-based Dandelion Chocolate and a concrete using Manresa Bread's chocolate chip cookies with vanilla custard. Culinary director Mark Rosati praises Bay Area producers and local burger culture, calls Dandelion’s Mexican-style hot chocolate 'it doesn't get any more decadent than that,' and says he is developing a Bay Area–specific burger (details withheld) while trying to balance celebration of local flavors with Shake Shack's original New York DNA. Rosati also acknowledges the chain's long absence from the Bay Area and says they want to make it worth the wait." - Caleb Pershan