chipotle log

NOTE: This is a followup to my earlier post about a personal tour of destination evans. The tour happened back in early October of 2007.

The Chief and the Photo

On the wall of the original chipotle (and many, if not all the other restaurants) is "The Chief". You could make up all sorts of ideas about how he guards over the quality of the food, or the Food with Integrity program or what have you. The bottom line is, that it's more of the cool maya-industrial art and now, much like the store is "Destination Evans" the chief gets to have his own name - at least as far as my tour guide Dave Hawkins is concerned.

Most Chipotle's have a photo of "Chipotle #1" on the wall. At Destination Evans itself they have photos on the walls, but the photo of their own location is from when it was a Dolly Madison restaurant. I need to double check the situation, but while I've heard that this is the only location that doesn't have a photo of "Destination Evans" on the wall I think there are others.

You can see the chief on the wall in the somerville chipotle which I visited recently.

Guacamole seasons

Basically there are 2 seasons as far as the avocados at Chipotle are concerned - the great seasons and the less great seasons. In the summer they get their avocados from the US and Mexico (I think) and therefore it is ripe and fresh and happy. This is when avocados were meant to be eaten and they taste great. Similarly, in the winter they get their avocados from Chile and, since it is the Chilean summer during the North American winter, winter is another great season for for avocados. And then there are the shoulder seasons - spring and fall. It's not natural for avocados to be great during these times of year and, while I had never noticed it before, the guacamole just wasn't as good during the my tour. My recommendation - it's good all year long, but if you really want to have their best guacamole be sure to order it during avocado season. You won't be disappointed.

On Demand Hot Water Heater, Chile Fan for the Basement, Signing the guestbook

Here are some fun photos from the tour:

Maybe it ain't sexy, but this on demand hot water heater saves Chipotle money (lower gas bills) and saves the planet from wasted energy and also takes up far less space than a traditional hot water heater with a tank (which was, in fact, the most important factor for this location.

This fan in the wall of the basement was important "back in the day" when they had to store and process a lot more of their ingredients down here. The dust of the peppers would get mixed up in the air and it was so rough on the throat and lungs that people would get burns and coughing fits. Ouch.

Dave is trying promote the concept of "destination evans" and, as part of that, if you make a pilgrimage to the original store and are super-sweet to him he just may let you grab a magic marker and "sign the guestbook" in the basement. Here's my signature which is on a beam roughly in the middle of the room.

I've got more photos from the original Chipotle.