Melissa over at Hunt Gather Love wrote a post titled Memo to Locavores: Animal Rights groups are NOT alllies.

Melissa is a “paleo” eater meaning she follows a diet that matches what folks did a few hundred/thousand years ago. She has both dietary, ethical, and environmental motivations all mixed together which are hard to distill but fun to discuss.

So, what about Chipotle? Well, Melissa had this tidbit in her recent article:

As everyone knows, I am a passionate advocate for small farms, but I think allying with organizations like HSUS to punish factory farms is NOT the way. I improving the infrastructure for local meat farmers and educating people about the health benefits of grassfed meat is the way to go. I’m pretty disappointed with Chipotle for supporting HSUS’s efforts in Ohio for more food fascism. I sometimes used to eat there, as it’s a pretty decent and consistent paleo option, but I think I will boycott.

“Food fascism” is a bit of inflammatory language, but I certainly appreciate the vigor!

The article about Chipotle she links to seems to show that the goals of Food With Integrity, especially when paired with a somewhat controversial animal rights organization, can lead to some negative feedback in social media outlets.

I hope Chipotle will take a cue from Melissa and focus their efforts on changing the world via competition and education rather than legislation. It’s easy to support Chipotle for providing better food at reasonable prices - it’s harder to support them in pushing legislation that will push people out of work and favor “a race to the bottom”.

Chipotle Comes to Your iPhone

According to macrumors a Chipotle ordering tool was added to the iPhone Application store (and then promptly removed).

Update: Chipotle Mobile Ordering has been removed from the App Store for unknown reasons, although users have reported that the app suffered from a number of bugs that may have precipitated its removal.

Bummer. I don’t see much advantage to ordering ahead, but it probably helps Chipotle sell more burritos so go out and get it, everyone!

Chipotle is Headed to London, United Kingdom

Forbes, among others, is reporting about Chipotle’s plans to expand to London. A few years ago they expanded to Canada while copycat restaurants open elsewhere around the globe so now they are heading straight to the UK themselves.

I wonder if the recipes will stay the same or be “Brittified”? I wonder if there are enough farms and ranches around to raise the animals in a way that fits with the Food With Integrity program?

Some of you may have seen “bio cutlery” other plant based plastics. The basic idea is that instead of using petroleum to create the plastics some plant material (usually corn) is used as the basis for the containers. This is often better for the environment in some ways because plants are a renewable resource and these plastics often degrade more quickly.

Chipotle Partners with HAVI/Perseco and Cereplast for Bio Cutlery

In Millbrae California the city government is instituting a ban on non-degradable containers at restaurants. This has restaurants scrambling to find suitable alternatives for their disposable products. This is probably a good idea for restaurants to implement nationwide.

According to this press release:

Chipotle will initially use the cutlery in its Millbrae, Calif. restaurant, with a system-wide rollout in Chipotle’s approximately 800 locations expected in the near future.

This could become another way that Chipotle leads the industry in sustainable and environmentally responsible practices.

Except Chipotle Isn’t Really Planning a Change…

According to QSRMagazine Chipotle isn’t really planning this change…

Currently, through a supplier, Chipotle purchases plastic cutlery made using Cereplast Compostables resin for its one restaurant in Millbrae, California, to comply with a local ordinance. In a Dec. 15 press release, which was not reviewed or approved by Chipotle, Cereplast misstated the nature of the relationship, stating that “A system-wide rollout of up to 800 Chipotle locations is expected in the near future.”

Chipotle currently has no plans to expand its relationship with Cereplast.

Some recent problems in Chipotle-land:

The Food Poisoning Law Blog is reporting (and, in my opinion, trying to build up clients) on a potential Hepatitis A outbreak at a Chipotle in La Mesa, California.

That comes right on the heels of the “gastrointestinal illness” at the Kent State, Ohio, Chipotle location.

Which comes right on the heals of all the press coverage when Chipotle teamed up with polyface farms.

So…yikes? Is this just bad luck/timing and a natural occurrence when you run over 600 restaurants? Is this a sign of dropping quality as the chain expands so quickly?

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

I’m currently in the middle of reading the Omnivore’s Dilemma and learning all about Polyface Farms and really loving their goals and the way they run their business. Then, I check my feed reader and see several new stories pop up - from the titles alone I was pretty excited:

• Chipotle Partners With Polyface For Sustainable Burritos
• One Polyface Burrito, Please
• Chipotle & Joel Salatin team up
• Chipotle and Polyface Farm
• In Trial Run, Chipotle Heads to the Farm

Wow. That’s a lot of great coverage for the new partnership (and both companies and their goals) including the obvious major coverage from the Washington Post. I won’t repeat the news that’s been posted by these folks other than to say if you like Chipotle for their Food With Integrity program, this seems like yet another great step down that road.

Now…to see about visiting that Chipotle location so that I can compare the carnitas at that location to the recipe I’m used to from the rest of the stores.

Food with Integrity Reading List (Media List)

This might be my new favorite combo. The pepper on the carnitas in combination with the other flavors is so delicious. Also, not so many beans and rice to weigh me down. This was a brand new receipt phrase for me, which is always fun.

I got some nice photos of this location with my new camera. Mmmm…gadgets.