Good times with my old college friends Cam and Ariel. We discussed the finer points of Chipotle’s history and of this particular restaurant within that history. They loved it (naturally).

today was chipotle’s 14th birthday. I got there at 11:15 because I wanted to be sure to get there early for the crazy crowds. apparently not everyone sees today as a big event. the store wasn’t even having any promotions or anything.

i asked about it and the manager was very nice, but said they weren’t doing anything. he did have the great idea that next year (the quinciniera, a huge “coming-of-age” birthday with a big party in Mexican culture) that they should have a huge party but then said “of course, we’d have to get approval from corporate”.

dear “corporate”,

i was there on the 10th birthday and while i’m going to be in mexico next summer i’ll probably be at every other birthday. you should celebrate these things. it’s part of what keeps the “un” in your “un chain”.

all the best on your birthday,
Greg

the original chipotle store was smoking tonight. the place was packed - line out the door - even at 9:00 at night. i wonder what their sales per store and sales per square feet and sales per $ lease looks like. i’ll bet this location is pretty good on those kinds of measures.

I never get crispy tacos. and rarely get carnitas. but tonight i got both. craziness.

also, some local macho men came in and while I’m pretty sure the manager didn’t like them, he really fed off of their mood and played into it and had fun with them. it was an amazing display of professionalism and treating the customer well. it seemed to kind of get on the nerves of some other customers (these guys were loud!) but the manager had fun and the guys really had fun. it was a pretty interesting thing to see.

i decided to bike down to the store today. it was a great time. i figured out that from my house down to ellsworth, over to washington takes me most of the way south. from there i should have gotten on buchtel and taken buchtel to franklin. instead i wound through platt park and east du neighborhoods and nearly got in accidents with cars at the many low visibility intersections.

on the way home i took franklin to buchtel which worked great, but then i got on downing north which worked OK aside from the asshole cars who don’t know colorado bike/driving law very well. The thing is colorado bike law isn’t just for bicyclists. it’s for drivers.

interestingly enough in my afternoon rage i see that we will soon be able to get share the road license plates which is pretty cool. I’ll definitely be doing that next time I need a license.

my partner and i were on the south side of town and said, “hey, why not go to the original chipotle for lunch?” yes, I think we will.

also, she had her purse and was hooking it around her knee so it wouldn’t affect the other people at the bar, but that didn’t work well and it fell on the floor - obviously there must be a better way… ;)

i took more measurements for my hook project and took some more photos of the first chipotle store

enjoy.