Chipotle

Burritos here are built in front of you, called out one ingredient at a time along a glass-fronted line. Chipotle keeps the format simple: pick a shape, pick a protein, then say yes or no down the row. Nothing waits under a heat lamp, because nothing gets made until somebody orders it aloud.

Chipotle History below covers the chef who opened the first shop, the loan that paid for it and the estate the company trades from now. Newport Beach, California holds the head office. Every restaurant belongs to the company itself, so no franchisee sets what you pay.

Chipotle History

Steve Ells trained at the Culinary Institute of America, then cooked for Jeremiah Tower at Stars in San Francisco. Taquerias in the Mission District caught his attention, and their burritos suggested a format. Chipotle Mexican Grill opened its first restaurant in Denver in 1993, inside a former Dolly Madison ice cream shop near the University of Denver. Ells and his father reckoned it needed to sell 107 burritos a day to break even. Within a month it was selling more than a thousand.

Food With Integrity became the idea the chain is known for, built on responsibly raised meat and fresh produce. McDonald’s put money in during 1998, when sixteen restaurants were trading and every one of them sat in Colorado. That backing carried the count past five hundred by 2005. Chipotle listed on the New York Stock Exchange in January 2006, and the stock doubled on its first day. McDonald’s sold out of the company entirely that same year.

Newport Beach, California holds the head office now, a long way from that first Denver shop. More than four thousand restaurants now trade across 48 states and the District of Columbia. Alaska and Hawaii are the two gaps. Chipotle owns and operates every one of them rather than selling franchises, which is rare at this scale. Chipotlanes put a drive-up window on the side of the building for orders already placed in the app.

Chipotle Menus and Details

Chipotle Menus below split three ways, one page each for the priced menu, the off-menu builds and the allergen list.

Every protein priced for a burrito, bowl, salad or tacos, plus Lifestyle Bowls, quesadillas, chips, guacamole, queso and the kids’ list.

Quesarito, Burritodilla, Nachos, Double Decker and the sauces regulars mix themselves, with the words that actually work at the counter.

Which ingredients declare wheat and gluten, soy, milk or sulphites, and which carry only a possible trace.