Free burritos mark grand opening of Chipotle on The Alameda

Free burritos mark the grand opening of Chipotle grill along The Alameda

Today (Thursday, April 10) is the grand opening of Chipotle on The Alameda in SJ. If you have the time and inclination to stand in line for hours, you can get a free burrito. I've never eaten there, and for a whopping savings of $3, I'd rather wait til the crowd dies down and pay full price.

Chipotle never appealed to me until I read an article about them, Ode To A Burrito by Arianne Cohen, in Fast Company a couple of weeks ago. I knew they were owned by McDonald's, which equates to fast food to me, which means "blech". Plus we have SO many good taquerias in the Bay Area, why would I want to eat at an El Pollo Loco wannabe?

Turns out Chipotle sounds like my kind of place. According to the Fast Company article, "Chipotle Mexican Grill is the Bono of the fast-food business.... Chipotle's focus [is] on hormone- and antibiotic-free meat that is humanely raised." The article also says the food is really good. So some day I may actually test out this claim.

100% of the pork is "hormone- and antibiotic-free, humanely raised meat, as [is] 80% of its chicken and 50% of its beef. That makes Chipotle the largest restaurant buyer of humanely raised meat," says Cohen.

Sounds like a great business opportunity too since the "average annual revenue of a Chipotle that has been open for more than a year is $1.7 million."

Burger King and Wendy's are now following suit and exploring humane-pork options.

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Chipotle Mexican Grill, 975 The Alameda at N. Morrison Ave., (408) 288-9172. Open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.

This post has been edited by mobyfan on Apr 9 2008, 11:43 PM

I believe they already have one in Cupertino on Saratoga Sunnyvale Rd. and I think I saw a sign for another one going up off of Camden and Union. Of course, there's one that's going in across Whole Foods in the complex that took over the old Fung Lum lot on Bascom near Hamilton.

BTW, I gotta agree with you on the freebie thing. If you've got nothing better to do, I guess why not, but I know some people who just are so enchanted with the idea of getting something for free that they'll do it just to feel the satisfaction of getting it for free.

QUOTE (Sheldon @ Apr 10 2008, 01:40 AM)

I believe they already have one in Cupertino on Saratoga Sunnyvale Rd. and I think I saw a sign for another one going up off of Camden and Union. Of course, there's one that's going in across Whole Foods in the complex that took over the old Fung Lum lot on Bascom near Hamilton.

Yeah, the Cupertino one's been there for quite awhile but I'm rarely in that area. And I'm never in the mood for "fast" food.

QUOTE (Sheldon @ Apr 10 2008, 01:43 AM)

BTW, I gotta agree with you on the freebie thing. If you've got nothing better to do, I guess why not, but I know some people who just are so enchanted with the idea of getting something for free that they'll do it just to feel the satisfaction of getting it for free.

Standing in line for 3 hours is not my idea of "free". If they were calculating their hourly wage, they'd be losing money.

Boy do you guys like to exaggerate. Every cheap, coupon offer requires common sense. I got coupons for Sonoma Chix Coop and had to wait a few weeks untill the demand slowed down to walk in and out ($4/whole chix). I think they are great and such a deal (reg: $16/chicken)k. There was a time there were 100 people waiting for 20 chickens. I called ahead of time.

Same goes with Chipolte. I doubt anyone spent three hours and I bet I could pick a time to get in and out. I saw the notice too late and don't remember if I was in the area, but I have free meals at Buca De Beppo, free fish tacos at Del Taco, free meals at Chevy's, $10/off at many places. I don't have any problem using my intro or coupon offers.

Lets encourage businesses to have the intro offers and don't make people feel stupid for taking advantage of them. It is a great way to try new places. I know I found out that Buca De Beppo pizza's are very good. I love Black Angus's meals for two. You can't beat two for ones at Tony/Alba's or Sweet Tomatoes for Sunday breakfast. You guys are welcomed to pay full price while I eat at terrific places for at least half off.

Use your coupons. Eat out as often as you can. Support new businesses.

I never said not to support businesses or not to take advantage of promotions. I use plenty of coupons and discounts. I'm just saying waiting 45 minutes in line for a "free" $3 burrito is not worth my time (the Merc article said people waited 45 minutes at the Harvard Chipotle.) And if you factor in travel time if you're on your lunch break, it could easily turn into a 3-hour ordeal (depending where you're driving from and if you need to search for parking, which you usually do on The Alameda). It's like the free days Baskin Robbins and Ben & Jerry's used to do -- it's free but you have to wait in a long line. It's like camping out to watch the new Star Wars movie -- I just find it a bit ridiculous and a waste of time. But that's just me.

I have to say Buca di Yucko one is one of my Top 5 restaurants I never want to eat at again. The food is just so subpar. We end up having to go there occasionally for group celebrations (never our choice -- always the guest of honor's choice) and always gripe about spending so much money for disgusting food (for group celebs, we always end up spending $30-50 per person). I HATE to waste food and almost always leave a restaurant with leftovers since I cannot eat large portions but the food is so bad, I have to decline a doggie bag at Buca (and our table only ate half of what we ordered -- our whole table didn't like the food).

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?...6004&highlight=

Actually Chipolte and Mcdonalds have separated. I did not want to go there at first because of the ownership deal. But then a friend of mine, who loves mexican food, told me to try it. I tried the soft tacos with carnitas, and you can other things to it as well. I thought the meat was wonderful and the people seemed nice. The next time I went, I tried the salad with the carnitas. The salad is very fresh, you can choose any meat you want or no meat, add salsa or guacamole., and etc.. Their prices are not bad and you can get refills on your drinks. I think it is way better than Taco Hell or El Pollo Loco. The other "fast food" mexican places that i like are Una Mas or La Salsa. Someone told me to try.. Wahoo's Fish Tacos.

Dang, and their stock is $108.59!

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=CMG

I wonder if I can find it in a mutual fund. There is only one socially responsible option in my retirement portfolio but it only got two stars from Morningstar.

I like La Salsa's bean & cheesy burrito. It's a simple concept but I have yet to find any other place that makes bean & cheesy's that taste decent.

Wahoo Fish Tacos taste good but I think because of the grease, my stomach always feels bad afterward. Same with Hawaiian food -- it tastes good (especially the macaroni salad, which I normally don't like)but it makes my stomach hurt later. I think I'm so used to eating healthy that my body just doesn't like crap. We just got back from Hawaii from didn't try any Wahoo or L&L there. We did stop at a fish tacos joint. It was okay.

Campbell now has a Chipotle. It opened today. I haven't tried it yet but it's located at 1875 S Bascom Ave #570, next to The Pruneyard where there used to be a Chinese restaurant that looked like a temple (I totally can't remember what it was called). It's now a mixed use building called Onyx.

http://www.chipotle.com/

This post has been edited by mobyfan on May 16 2008, 06:15 PM

It was called Fung Lum and it was a treat with inside ponds and beautiful architecture. It was the only one in the western hemishoere until Universal City opened one. THe roof alone was millions of dollars. The food was extraordinary but I think the head chef was stolen away. I guess San Jose /Campbell wasn't ready for a world class restaurant.

I thought it was Fung Lum but then I thought FL was the one on De Anza Blvd in Cupertino next to McDonald's. I should know since I'm Chinese but it's actually my least favorite type of cuisine. I'd never gone to Fung Lum, except to buy a gift certificate for my uncle once. I hope he used it before they closed. It's a shame to destroy such an expensive and nice piece of architecture. I wonder if they were able to salvage any of it. There is a small Chinese museum in Kelley Park with a Chinese temple. They could have used it for something like that.