welcome to Chipotle thank you for your
bravery 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
America's preferred over-the-counter
laxative 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 foodborne illness
scandals have brought Chipotle close to
bankruptcy and in danger of completely
collapsing they've experienced six food
safety failures involving norovirus
Salmonella and e-coli so with that in
mind get your small intestine ready as
we look into the top ten untold truths
of Chipotle oh and just so you know
guacamoles extra Chipotle what are you
[Laughter]
the founder of Chipotle Steve ELLs is a
real chef if you're like other Americans
you love to eat Chipotle but you hate
all those terrible bloodstains in your
underwear
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 taco Deus 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
taco Dias and Mexican food in general
thanks to its high concentration of
Salvadorian Guatemalan and Nicaraguan
people and restaurants with the
mission-style burrito you just get so
much more
and who can argue with that 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
else's father for well eighty five
thousand dollars is a relatively small
loan a few hundred dollars was well
especially when the cost of opening a
new restaurant are taken into account
ELLs and his father realized that he'd
need to sell a hundred and seven
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 90s 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 led
chip outlay to explode nearly overnight
after just a month in business Ellis 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 open thanks to a loan
his father clearly saw that he had a
winning concept and decided to invest
1.5 million dollars into his son's
restaurants which clearly has paid
itself back in spades over the years get
you out of this
the first Chipotle was located inside an
ice-cream shop with a famous name hey
Julian you're inside the Chipotle
burrito where everything is video 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 is 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 Dolly Madison
nearly disappeared back when hostess
announced its 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
it's just so good it is just so tasty so
it's my dirty little secret I love joy
the interior of Chipotle looks rough for
a reason okay
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 have 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
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 antibiotic
free Animal Control was called to remove
the bird but when inspectors returned
the next day live bird still there 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 tonne of
antibiotics which is partially the
reason that bacteria are becoming
resistant 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 if you do a search on
the internet for chicken McNuggets
this pops up 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 I was watching your face
watching the tape as well this is a hard
time for you guys but Chipotle is so
well known for its antibiotic free
stance that eles has testified in front
of Congress about the practice and what
he thinks it means for the future of
farming free cat toy at Chipotle's if
you've ever wondered why basically every
single ad on television or imprint has
so much small print this story will
basically answer that for you what was I
supposed to do call the principal and
say I can't teach today because I'm
constipated back in 1998 before Chipotle
became the household name that it is
today they ran an ad imprint that showed
a rolled-up tinfoil 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 tinfoil 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 a scarecrow
that's their superhero they do know he
was the one without a brain right and so
they had to stop running the ad which
considering we're still talking about it
20 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 added a
bunch of small print to their
in the future it pays to manage it
Capote lay computer nice - 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
restaurant tear 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
honestly it's exhilarating it changes
your life it changes the people around
you 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 ten thousand dollars 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 I mean let's face it if you're
even contemplating eating here after an
e.coli scare what would it take to stop
you 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 as McDonald's even sell real
food 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 bring 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
fillet of fish patty and a chicken patty
get it so like most fast food companies
Chipotle has a secret menu the case our
eat though 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 it
took me 23 minutes to get a burrito out
of this place huh 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 I felt at the end of
this chip polt they owed me something
you can get free Chipotle burritos every
day for a year if I just got a trip
island card for one free taco okay for
the next 360 days it 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 I tried that I tried to
buy a Chipotle in Detroit a few famous
people have posted about their 4life
cards including Bryce Harper who plays
baseball for the Washington Nationals
and Steven Tyler the lead singer of
Aerosmith sure why would chip oat Leigh
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
and 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 Schiphol a once or twice that
year and post about that on their social
media the reason they're called 4life
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 actually
owns supposedly so they're just getting
all the paper McDonald's does not own
Chipotle I don't like McDonald's anymore
I used to eat it I ate too much of it
already
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 purist that McDonald's would
ruin their favorite restaurant why is my
face
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 happen 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
arts 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
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