It’s a sad day for Pittsburgh sports fans – and a sad day for Pittsburgh milkshake fans, too.
After news broke last night that the Pittsburgh Penguins were trading fan favorite Jake Guentzel to the Carolina Hurricanes, the team at the Pittsburgh-based Milkshake Factory had a lot to do.
“We found out when the public found out,” says Dana Edwards Manatos, the MilkShake Factory’s CEO. “We knew that it was a potential thing, but we did hold out hope that a trade wouldn’t happen. But it’s been a sprint for our entire team since then.”
That’s because the Guentzel’s namesake shake, ‘Jake’s Shake,’ a triple-chocolate sweet treat that’s been on the menu for the last six years, would need to be retired.
The shake, which is made with hot fudge, cookies and cream, and brownies, and topped with fudge, caramel, and a milk chocolate ’59,’ was introduced in 2018 after the MilkeShake Factory’s partnership with the Pens was finalized.
“It was pretty organic,” Edwards Manatos says. “Jake lived across the street from our downtown location when he was a rookie, and he used to come in and order our different chocolate shakes because that was his favorite. When we created this partnership with the Pens, we were looking at what could we do with them, and we thought, honestly, ‘Jake rhymes with shake.'”
“And we couldn’t afford Crosby,” laughs MilkShake Factory co-founder Chris Edwards.
Edwards Manatos says that while Guentzel was initially a good player, he wasn’t one of the league’s top scorers. “So we said, ‘Let’s give half-off every time he scores,'” she says. The MilkShake Factory introduced a promotion giving half-off every Jake’s Shake the day after Guentzel scored a goal in a game.
Since then, Guentzel became an explosive scorer, and has had multiple 40-goal seasons.
“And here we are, six years later, and we’ve sold more than 500,000 Jake’s Shakes,” Edwards says. “We really never could have imagined it.”
Jake’s Shake (and the half-off promotion) has been a massive sales-driver for the MilkShake Factory, with the shops seeing an eight-times lift on Jake’s Shakes the day after he scores.
“It’s our number one best-selling shake,” says Edwards. “I was watching a game on TV once, and somebody in Tampa Bay had a sign that said ‘Score Me A Shake, Jake.’ We get calls from agents all the time saying ‘How did you do this?’ And we say that it can’t be replicated. It really was just the right partnership at the right time. And he got into it too, and became really involved.”
With Guentzel leaving the city, the MilkShake Factory is taking Jake’s Shake off the menu, and sending off the treat with a retirement ceremony at the store’s downtown location today at noon.
“Our Director of Operations will say a few words, and we’ve had a special jersey made that says ‘Jake’s Shake’ and ’59’ on it that we’ll be hoisting up into the rafters,” Edwards says. The first 50 people in the door will also receive a Milkshake Factory tee.
And… it’s not quite the end of the line for the shake. Edwards and Edwards Manatos say that it will stay on the menu in some form, and they’re working out the details now.
The MilkShake Factory, which has announced that it’s awarded 60 franchises across the country (Salt Lake City will be the first one to open, later this spring) doesn’t plan to replicate Jake’s Shake in any other market.
“Honestly, we couldn’t have chosen a better partner than Jake and the Pittsburgh Penguin,” says Edward Manatos. “Just seeing the response that Jake himself has brought to the city, and the fans, and the partnership with us, and seeing the joy that milkshakes bring people, it’s been amazing. It’s been exciting to see what it has done for the city.”
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