TOP 10 UNTOLD TRUTHS OF CHIPOTLE!!! - YouTube

Top 10 Untold Truths of Chipotle

It's been a rough few years for Chipotle, the Mexican food chain that was the darling

of the industry for most of the past two decades.

Chipotle, at its peak, was the model for what a Mexican chain could be and because of that,

it was met with a ton of copycats and competition.

This along with the mostly food-borne illness scandals have brought Chipotle close to bankruptcy

and in danger of completely collapsing.

So, with that in mind, get your small intestine ready as we look into the Top 10 Untold Truths

of Chipotle.

Oh, and just so you know, guacamole’s extra.

The Founder of Chipotle Steve Ells, is a "Real" Chef

Chipotle was founded by Steve Ells, who attended the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde

Park, New York, and after that, he landed a gig that would change his life, as a line

cook for Jeremiah Tower at Stars in San Francisco.

It was there that he learned not only how to cook Mexican dishes like Taquerias and

"San Francisco Burritos" but also, and perhaps most importantly, how immensely popular they

both are inside and outside of the Mission District of San Francisco (the Mission district

is famous for its taquerias and Mexican food in general thanks to its high concentration

of Salvadorian, Guatemalan and Nicaraguan people and restaurants).

After acquiring a loan of $85,000 from his father, Ells opened the first Chipotle in

Denver, Colorado near the University of Denver using what he had learned at Jeremiah Tower,

and from there he was able to test his version of the San Francisco and Mission burrito and

almost immediately he realized that he had a hit on his hands, opening the second Chipotle

location a little under two years after the first using solely money from the first store

and not from a loan, which is generally unheard of in the restaurant industry.

Liking this video so far?

Hit that subscribe button and click that notification bell.

Chipotle was Ten Times more profitable than they'd hoped

The first Chipotle restaurant was opened in 1993 thanks to a loan from Steve Ells' father.

While $85,000 is a relatively small loan especially when the costs of opening a new restaurant

are taken into account, Ells and his father realized that he'd need to sell 107 burritos

a day to break even at his first location near the University of Denver.

While it was still only a one location restaurant at that point, people in the early-to-mid

90's weren't used to getting high quality Mexican fast food, especially not with fresh

ingredients that you can see while the chef is making your order - and it was a combination

of those factors that lead Chipotle to explode nearly overnight.

After just a month in business, Ells has stated that he was making over 1,000 burritos a day,

which is ten times the amount he needed to break even, and was enough to allow him to

open a second location in a year and a half without having to take out a loan.

While the third location was opened thanks to a loan, his father clearly saw that he

had a winning concept and decided to invest $1.5 million into his son's restaurants, which

clearly has paid itself back in spades over the years.

The First Chipotle was Located Inside an Ice Cream Shop with a Famous Name

For Chipotle’s first location, Ells chose a spot near the University of Denver with

a lot of history behind it as it was once named Dolly Madison Ice Cream.

Dolly Madison was the First Lady of the United States back when James Madison was in office

and she actually served ice cream at her husband's inaugural ball way back in 1813.

Because people didn't have refrigerators let alone freezers back then, the concept of ice

cream was completely foreign, and because of that Madison is widely credited with popularizing

ice cream with the masses and so it's just a weird coincidence that the person that is

credited with popularizing the "Mission Burrito" to the masses set up shop in a restaurant

named after the woman who was famous for popularizing ice cream.

If the name Dolly Madison sounds familiar and you're not a history buff, it's because

Hostess Brands, the people behind Twinkies, also have a bakery as part of their business

known as Dolly Madison Bakery (which is also based on the first lady) and while it's not

actually connected to the first lady herself (as it was founded in 1937 and she was alive

in the early part of the 19th Century, it was based on the brand of ice cream that was

named after her.

Dolly Madison nearly disappeared back when Hostess announced it's plans to go out of

business in 2012, however it was saved along with Twinkies by Apollo Global Management

when they acquired nearly everything Hostess in January of 2013.

The Interior of Chipotle Looks Rough for a Reason

If you could choose one word to describe the interior of a Chipotle you'd most likely come

up with a word like "rough", "Industrial" or "Tetanus" and while a lot of restaurants

spend thousands upon thousands of dollars to create a theme and it very well could've

been a conscious choice, the reality is that because of the limited budget that Chipotle

founder Steve Ells had when he opened the first Chipotle, he couldn't afford to hire

an interior decorator or to buy fancy interior decor.

Instead, most of the original Chipotle was decorated with items from the hardware store

which explains all of the metal and junction boxes.

Speaking of those junction boxes, the original light fixtures were a combination of metal

junction boxes and porcelain lamp holders that contained a single halogen bulb, something

that was replicated across the country as Chipotle expanded.

So, they sometimes say that it costs a lot of money to look cheap but apparently, that

wasn't the case in terms of at least the first Chipotle, as the items in those early restaurants

were actually exactly what they appeared to be.

Whether or not that's safe or wise doesn't really matter as it clearly worked and isn't

something that Chipotle has moved away from, over 25 years later.

They also say that it’s important to stand out than to blend in and it's that decor that

gives Chipotle a distinct feeling and ambiance - so perhaps Ells went into the wrong business

when he chose cooking over home decor.

Chipotle Wasn't Always Anti-Biotic Free

One of the reasons that Chipotle initially blew up onto the scene was its commitment

to antibiotic-free chicken.

You see, in order to keep their animals healthy and to limit losses due to diseases, farmers

have historically force fed their livestock a ton of antibiotics, which is partially the

reason that bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics in both animals and humans.

One could say that Chipotle was one of the main reasons that antibiotic-free livestock

became as popular a concept as it has been, with most restaurants, fast food or otherwise,

committing to using antibiotic-free livestock in recent years (with McDonald's doing the

same for its Chicken McNuggets).

So you may be surprised to hear that the concept wasn't immediate for Chipotle, in fact, it

took a good six-years for Chipotle to move towards antibiotic-free chicken after founder

Steve Ells read an article in The Art of Eating about farmers in Iowa raising hogs in “super-regulated

environments".

Ells asked to taste some of the pork from those pigs and realized that they tasted a

lot better and so after that, he started the decision to focus on fresh ingredients and

antibiotic-free meat, right before the turn of the millennium.

Billions and Billions of chickens and pigs have those delicious Iowan pigs to thank for

that, or maybe they don't since they might be getting sick without the medication.

But Chipotle is so well known for its antibiotic-free stance that Ells has testified in front of

Congress about the practice and what he thinks it means for the future of farming.

Free Cat Toy at Chipotles

If you've ever wondered why basically every single ad on television or in print has so

much small print, this story will basically answer that for you.

Back in 1998, before Chipotle became the household name that it is today, they ran an ad in print

that showed a rolled up tin-foil ball that stated: "Free Cat Toy with Every Purchase".

Now, if you've ever been to Chipotle you'll get the joke, as they serve their products

in tin foil, and thus you're always left with a little ball of tin-foil (and lots and lots

of shame) after you're done eating there.

However, people didn't get the joke and actually started showing up to Chipotle locations asking

for the cat toy around that time and so they had to stop running the ad, which

considering we're still talking about it twenty years later means it was either genius or

a complete disaster.

Either way it did get people in the door so it couldn't have been all bad, although if

the internet has taught us anything it's that you don't want to piss off cat people, so

I'm sure they ended up handing out a few free burritos to the more particular of the bunch

and then adding a bunch of small print to their ads in the future.

It Pays to Manage a Chipotle

Sometimes you hear that progressive companies might not live up to their ideals when it

comes to paying their own employees or really even treating those people with respect, but

when it comes to Chipotle that really isn't the case, thankfully.

In fact, Chipotle can end up paying you really well if you're a general manager through a

program called the "Elite Restauranteur Program".

That program attempts to recruit new general managers who in turn are meant to recruit

and retain new talent and it awards them with an initial bonus and stock options as well

as a bonus of $10,000 if they hire someone who also ends up becoming a general manager.

While that may sound like a pyramid scheme keep in mind that the Aztec and Mayans did

in fact have pyramids of their own, even if they ended up looking more like parallelograms

than standard pyramids.

Either way, this sort of goes against the idea that working for a fast-food restaurant

doesn't pay, as long as you're in charge of the entire restaurant (or multiple restaurants)

and the people you hire end up doing the exact same thing, you'll be fine.

While that always runs a risk that you'll be replaced by your own recruit, it's probably

worth it for the chance that you'll get $10,000 on your next paycheck.

Think of all the extra guacamole you'll be able to buy!

Chipotle has a Secret Menu...

But there's a catch

If you've spent any time on the internet you'll know that most fast-food restaurants can make

items that aren't on the menu.

People call that a "Secret Menu" but really all it is is a mixture of whatever they have

on the menu.

Like adding Chicken McNuggets to your Big Mac (as in, under the bread), and while you

can't ask for just anything (as they have to be able to ring it up in the system), most

places can be pretty accommodating when it comes to making something like the "Air, Land

and Sea Sandwich" from McDonald's that includes a beef patty, a Filet O' Fish Patty and a

Chicken patty (get it?).

So, like most fast food companies, Chipotle has a secret menu, the Quesarito, which is

exactly what it sounds like, a burrito with a quesadilla where the tortilla should be.

While it sounds like that Taco Bell taco that has chicken instead of a tortilla this one

isn't that bad for you and is actually quite delicious.

Just don't ask for it when there's a super long line as it takes time to create and they

may refuse to make it if they're crunched for time.

Luckily for you, since 2016 most Chipotle's aren't that busy anymore, so just remember

it's the Quesarito and it very well may save Chipotle in the end.

You Can Get Free Chipotle Burritos Everyday for a Year...

If…

It's said that only when you're rich and famous will people begin to give you things for free

and perhaps the best example of that is the Free Card that Chipotle gives its famous fans.

That's right, if you're famous and have made it clear that you love Chipotle they'll send

you a card that is good for free Chipotle "for life", although it is said that the cards

actually expire after one year which is about the amount of time that most people are at

the peak of their fame.

A few famous people have posted about their "for life" cards including Bryce Harper, who

plays baseball for the Washington Nationals and Steven Tyler, the lead singer of Aerosmith.

Why would Chipotle give away these "for life" and where did the name come from if they're

not actually good for life?

The answer is that famous people can influence other people and by sending these cards out

to people who have talked about Chipotle in their interviews before they're increasing

the chance that famous people will not only post about the card on their social media

but also that they'll attend Chipotle once or twice that year and post about that on

their social media.

The reason they're called "For Life" cards is mainly due to a misunderstanding by some

(like the aforementioned Bryce Harper) who thought his card was good for life while it

was actually just good for a year.

Either way, that's one year of free Chipotle and that's really more than enough to last

someone a lifetime.

McDonald's Does NOT Own Chipotle

Around the turn of the century, people started saying that Chipotle had been purchased by

none other than McDonald's.

There was a lot of fear from the Chipotle purists that McDonald's would ruin their favorite

restaurant by either changing the menu or introducing less quality ingredients in the

name of making a quick buck.

Now there's some truth to that but it's not exactly what you think.

Back around that time when Chipotle went into hardcore expansion mode, it needed financial

backers to help it do just that and McDonald's happened to be one of the companies that put

their money behind Chipotle.

That doesn't mean, though, that McDonald's OWNS Chipotle, at all, it just means that

they made a lot of money from Chipotle's expansion around the early-to-mid aughts and that it

helped them grow into new markets by sharing their market data.

So, while it'd be easy to blame McDonald's for the problems that Chipotle has had as

of late, the reality is that those were all done by the same people who originally started

Chipotle.

Don’t go run out in search of your nearest Chipotle just yet - hit that subscribe button

and click that notification bell, and don’t go anywhere, check out some of our other great

videos!