chipotle log

This is the new roasted tomato salsa that I mentioned.

This was my first visit to the Silverthorne location, though I had read about it via the e-mails and newspaper coverage online. It was pretty typical, though the folks working there had a clear “I’m a mountain town person” feeling to them compared to the employees in other locations. I’ve heard that they are not as fast or good at making the food as other locations which makes a fair amount of sense given that mountain towns tend to have higher turnover in all industries.

The mild salsa looked a bit different. I asked and it’s a new recipe they are trying out before they open the restaurants in the United Kingdom. Apparently they think that Londoners will prefer to have their salsa a bit different. The thing I noticed was a smother consistency - indeed this salsa has been blended a bit. They also said that they are roasting some of the veggies in the salsa which will add an even smokier flavor (and some great marketing material, of course).

I’m interested to see if they’ll keep this at any other stores across America. I think this makes the mild salsa much more suitable for dipping the chips in it. I plan on heading back and getting chips with a side of mild so I can test it as simply and purely as possible.

I’m mixed on this one, but it is generally exciting. Chipotle announced today a new iPhone application that allows you to order stuff in advance via your iPhone. Pretty awesome. One of the major complaints that I hear about chipotle is that certain locations have such a long wait time. This application allows any of the millions of folks with an iPhone to jump past the line and get their food.

iPhone Application - Should help finances

During the investors call in the summer of 2007 the Chipotle people on the call noted that the speed to process orders each hour was one of the biggest limiting factors for their was the speed of the line and (more importantly) the checkout process during the busiest time periods. This application allows them to utilize a second food-prep line and a totally separate payment process (which should be faster in terms of time spent in the store). If they can process an additional 5 orders during the busy hour that’s actually a big deal for them. Chipotle’s stock was actually down today - perhaps the market already knew that this was happening or perhaps the market hasn’t picked up on this news yet.

iPhone App Bad - Mobile Website Good

Why am I mixed on this? Well, my iphone broke and Apple and AT&T are a bunch of complete morons. (seriously). I would much rather that Chipotle build a mobile optimized website where this was possible. When I go to the Chipotle.com site with my G1 (Android) phone I get a mobile optimized site but all I can do is find restaurants - there’s no order form at all :(

This is chipotle’s birthday. They didn’t do anything to celebrate. I’m kind of amazed at all the different traditional celebratory events that they are letting drop this year. I wonder if it’s part of the broader move to a more standard marketing strategy.

Regardless, I celebrated the birthday at a pretty solid location. The individual who was working the cash register didn’t even know that today is the birthday (she did admit to being new…).

This is the illegal petes on Evans near the University of Denver. Who knows what happened here?

This proposed store is 1 block away from the original Chipotle.

It seems some other folks feel agree with me that the “new” chipotle style is not so good.

http://cheapotle.com/