Colorado Adventures Part 4 – The First Chipotle
For those of you just tuning in, we went to Colorado in late February on a family ski trip. This is the final (I promise) installment of our adventures. So far, here’s what happened –
Part 1: We spent wayyyyy too much because we tourists.
Part 2: We got stuck in Denver and had great Chinese food and meh Mexican food. (Meh- xican?)
Part 3: We had an amazing meal at Euclid hall and barely made it home.
travel tourism food
We were checking out of our hotel at around noon and were getting pretty hungry. The family likes Chipotle a lot and I knew that the original restaurant was somewhere in Denver. However my suggestion to go find it was met with a nasty glare from Boom Boom. That’s because at that point of the trip she was getting a little sick and tired of my gathering material for blog posts. Luckily, it was the closest Chipotle restaurant to our hotel. #nobrainer
That’s Boom Boom at the front door giving me a “hurry up and take the damn picture” look.
family
When we got there we were surprised to find that there wasn’t anything really special to let you know this was the first one. Sure the green signs are a little different, but there were several in Denver with those. Inside, it was smaller than usual, but that’s about it. I figured there’d be a plaque or pictures or anything, really. But it looked like your regular old Chipotle.
As I was paying, one of the women behind the counter asked where we were from. At first, I thought they picked up some kind of Chicago accent or something. Then I realized they saw me taking that picture outside. When we confirmed that we were tourists, a small part of me was wondering if we’d get charged triple, like some of those places at Keystone. Instead, the next question we were asked was, “what size t-shirts do you want?”
Suuuuhhhh – weeeet!!
shirt
The burrito itself was pretty much pretty like every other Chipotle burrito I’ve had.
Click here for my official review on Chipotle burritos.
food
Nice flavor, some heft to it, not spectacular, but definitely serviceable. I really wish they wouldn’t steam the shells on them because they become too rubbery. But I was expecting that, so no big deal. When we finished the manager, Jose, greeted us and took us on a tour of the place.
First stop – the trap door to the basement.
travel
Second stop – the basement. Yeah, that’s about it. There’s really not much to see there. Remember, this place started out as a regular ol’ burrito shop. So all that was needed was a kitchen, dining space, storage…
and an office.
small business
Still, it was great to hear Jose talk about the history of the restaurant and it’s commitment to natural ingredients. It was even cooler to sign the wall…
Of course I went for the shameless plug…
marketing
Here’s a pic of me and Jose. That’s me on the left with the bad hat hair.
food
Overall, it was a terrific experience. It’s not every day that you get to see the something like this. It was great to see The Pieholes really digging the tour and knowing that it was more than the usual burrito lunch. And the free t-shirt helped, too.
For me, while they don’t make my favorite burritos, it’s hard to ignore that Chipotle is THE burrito juggernaut. As Jose told me, they have over 500 locations now and are still expanding. So it truly is admirable that they’ve stuck with their commitment to using natural ingredients, too. Yeah, seeing the original one was definitely cool.
But perhaps the biggest thrill for me was being able to say to Boom Boom, “See? If it wasn’t for my taking pictures of the place for my ‘silly little blog’, we wouldn’t have gotten the tour!”
It’s the little things in life…
travel
tourism
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6 comments on “Colorado Adventures Part 4 – The First Chipotle”
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wine century
Doppel Member, Baby!
As an extreme lover of chipotle, this made my morning to read. I must go here. Must. You’re super excited in that picture. Definitely made me chuckle.
Looks like a fun tour and meal!
How cool! Sometimes it pays to be a “tourist.” It’s nice to see they rolled out the red carpet for you. I live near that Chipotle. 🙂
I think I remember you mentioning that! I say you go there and pretend to take pictures to look like a tourist. A fanny pack would probably help, too. 😉
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