Chipotle says it plans to open burger restaurant

Chipotle transformed the fast-food burrito, can it do the same for burgers? Post E. coli scandal, the fast-casual Mexican restaurant famous for charging extra for their guac has been struggling.

Co-CEO Steve Ells said in a statement that early fast-food burger chains had “focused menus”, and that Chipotle wanted create a restaurant built around that model. TastyMade’s menu will focus on hamburgers, fries and milkshakes, but if the parent company’s track record is any indication, even those limited menu items will undoubtedly offer enough choices to accommodate a number of different palates, from those wanting a plain cheeseburger to the one willing to take a chance on more sophisticated or unusual burger toppings.

Tasty Made shakes will be made with milk, cream, sugar, eggs and other natural ingredients, Ells said.

“Making only burgers, fries and shakes with really great ingredients, we think we can appeal to people’s timeless love of burgers, but in a way that is consistent with our long-term vision”, he said. Appleman, a James Beard Award winning chef, joined Chipotle in 2010. “Their talents include everything from developing menus to building incredible restaurant teams”.

The burrito chain first hinted at a possible burger venture back in March when it filed a trademark application for “Better Burger”. Pettit said Tasty Made will not affect the existing Chipotle restaurant and that it will remain open.

“But more than that, this is a testament to what we’re trying to do”, he said. At the time, Chipotle described this concept as a “growth seed idea”.

The first Tasty Made is located at 732 N. Memorial Drive in Lancaster, OH. Already, the company has an Asian food concept called ShopHouse, which lists 15 locations, and a pizza concept called Pizzeria Locale, which lists five locations.

/ Before joining Networld Media Group as director of Editorial, where she oversees Networld Media Group’s nine B2B publications, Cherryh Cansler served as Content Specialist at Barkley ad agency in Kansas City.