Fast Casual Dining: The Chipotle Mexican Grill Experience

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Chipotle Mexican Grill has redefined the restaurant industry over the past twenty years. Before Chipotle, there were essentially no restaurants that offered high quality food and tailored orders at fast-food speeds. Chipotle successfully created this experience, which is now considered “fast casual” dining. Steve Ells, the founder of Chipotle, opened his first restaurant in 1993 in Denver, Colorado. Now there are more than 1,500 locations across the globe. Ells focuses on “sourcing the best possible ingredients, serving the tastiest food, and growing the most capable team”. He calls this “Food With Integrity”, which has become the mission statement for the company. Chipotle’s menu is simple yet customizable. The menu lists Mexican food such as burritos, tacos, and salads, each of which comes with a choice of five types of meat. Along with picking the type of meat, customers can choose to add other toppings to their order ranging from corn salsa to sour cream. The basic menu with numerous toppings to add on creates endless variations of things to order at Chipotle. Their menu is also comprised of mostly naturally raised, organic, and sustainably grown food products. Recently, Chipotle has begun expanding by creating new restaurant chains. In September 2011, Chipotle opened an Asian restaurant in Washington, D.C. called ShopHouse Southeast Asian Grill. The company has now opened six new locations, and they’re planning to continue to open more locations. Less than two years later, in May of 2013, Chipotle launched Pizzeria Locale in Denver, Colorado. Both restaurants follow the fast casual vibe of Chipotle. This sauce competes within the fast casual segment of the restaurant industry. In the broadest scope, Chipotle competes to ful... ... middle of paper ... ...c.pdf>. We used information regarding the effects of Super Size Me on the fast food industry. 8. "No. 6 Chipotle." - America's Top 10 Healthiest Fast Food Restaurants. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. . We used information regarding Chipotle’s ranking as the top 10 healthiest fast food restaurants in the US. 9. "Chipotle: Food With Integrity." Chipotle: Food With Integrity. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2014. . We used information regarding Chipotle’s treatment of animals. 10. Newman, Rick. "The Exchange." Yahoo Finance. N.p., 29 Mar. 2013. Web. 16 Mar. 2014. . We used information regarding the profit margins of the fast food industry.

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