Steve Ells was looking to launch a fine-dining restaurant when he opened his first Chipotle Mexican Grill. However, he found Chipotle's "food with integrity" mission satisfied his passion for the business.
Ells sat down with the Wall Street Journal reporter Colleen Debaise to discuss his early days, the partnership with McDonald's and how he learned the industry without a single business class.
From the story:
"Having never taken a business class, the economics of restaurants scared me. I opened Chipotle with the idea that I could step away from it and use it to support my full-scale restaurant. We served just a few things, burritos and tacos, and it was put together very simply with plywood. It had a very funky, raw look to it. Of course it also had a low investment cost. And so what resulted was this restaurant that was, in fact, quite replicable."
Chipotle now boasts nearly 900 locations and was the first restaurant to receive Platinum level Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) for its Gurnee, Ill., restaurant. In May, it launched a "My Chipotle" ad contest that asked fans to submit ads highlighting their favorite food combination from the Chipotle menu. The winning video, "Oso Closo Burrito," was created by Shane Connelly from Denton, Texas.
