13 Things You Didn't Know About Chipotle

By Erin Cullum

If you can recite your Chipotle order in your sleep and have made friends with your location's employees, you probably feel like you know the restaurant pretty well. But what you might not know is more of the behind-the-scenes information and history that will make you even more devoted (and yes, the E. Coli outbreak is officially over). For one thing, did you know the founder is a legit chef who went to culinary school? (Thanks for making the guac so good that I don't even care that it's extra, Steve). Keep reading to learn more.

  1. Chipotle was inspired by authentic taquerias in the Mission neighborhood of San Francisco. "What fascinated me about these burritos was that they were made in this giant tortilla, and everything was on the inside then wrapped in foil — I had never seen anything like that before," founder and CEO Steve Ells said in a video by Chipotle.
  2. Steve went to the Culinary Institute of America in New York after studying Art History at the University of Colorado at Boulder. "When I graduated college I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, but cooking and restaurants had always been a passion of mine, so I decided I would enroll in the CIA with the notion of becoming a chef," he said in the video.
  3. He then moved to San Francisco and worked as a sous chef at one of his favorite restaurants at the time, the legendary Stars restaurant (a restaurant owned by a former Chez Panisse chef that closed in 1999). "That's where I think I really started to learn how to cook and taste critically," he revealed.
  4. With no economic background, his idea for Chipotle was able to come to fruition because of a loan from his parents. He opened the first location in 1993 in Colorado.
  5. His friends thought he was crazy to leave his restaurant job to open a burrito place. "But I had a very strong vision for the way Chipotle was going to look," he said, and he obviously had the right idea.
  6. Now, Chipotle has over 1,900 locations and more than 53,000 employees.
  7. Restaurant managers can make six-figure salaries. Chipotle's restaurateur program, which focuses on hiring from within, "allows hourly crew members to become managers earning well over $100,000 a year," Quartz reported.
  8. Jason Mraz has an avocado farm outside of San Diego, and he sells them to local Chipotle restaurants.
  9. The company uses about 35 million pounds of avocados every year.
  10. Bowls are more popular than burritos. (Psst, that flour tortilla has 300 calories).
  11. Chipotle had never added a new menu item until introducing sofritas in 2014, and they took it seriously — they hired James-Beard-Award winning chef Nate Appleman to develop the recipe.
  12. Chipotle has a fast-casual pizza restaurant in a few areas of the country called Pizzeria Locale that serves customizable Neapolitan-style pizzas. It's located in Colorado, Missouri, and Cincinnati, OH.
  13. Chipotle also has a fast-casual Asian restaurant! Shophouse Kitchen specializes in Southeast Asian rice bowls and is located in parts of California, Illinois, Maryland, and Washington DC.