Chipotle Mexican Grill

Chipotle Mexican Grill was founded in Denver in 1993 by Steve Ells, a Culinary Institute of America graduate who opened the first restaurant with the intention of using the proceeds to fund a fine dining restaurant before discovering that the burrito format was more commercially viable than anticipated. The chain’s growth through the 2000s was built on two ideas that were unusual in the fast-food industry: first, that the assembly-line efficiency of McDonald’s could be applied to a menu of whole ingredients rather than processed food, and second, that responsibly raised meat and fresh produce could be used in a fast-casual context without the price point of a full-service restaurant.

The Chipotle format is the assembly line: the customer moves along the counter specifying each component of their burrito, bowl, taco, or salad. The rice, the beans, the protein, the salsas, the cheese, and the guacamole are the elements, each prepared fresh in the restaurant’s kitchen rather than arriving in bags or cans. The simplicity of the format belies the operational complexity that maintaining fresh preparations at the volume Chipotle serves requires.

The Georgetown location at 3255 M Street NW serves one of the most demographically concentrated Chipotle markets: Georgetown University students represent the core lunch and dinner customer for this location, supplemented by the M Street foot traffic and the surrounding professional and residential population. The M Street location is among the busier Chipotle locations in the Washington market.

The guacamole, which is made fresh from avocados mashed with lime, cilantro, red onion, and jalapeño, is the most frequently discussed single item in the Chipotle system, both because of its flavor and because the extra charge that accompanies it is the most consistently mentioned minor grievance in American casual dining.

Hours run from 10:45am to 10pm daily. The location at 3255 M Street NW is in the upper end of the main M Street commercial cluster, close to the Georgetown University end of M Street that the student population approaches from the campus direction. The proximity to Georgetown University makes this one of the Chipotle locations where the student lunch and dinner demand is significant enough to affect the restaurant’s character and the hours it sees peak traffic. The M Street location also serves the Georgetown retail workers who need a fast and filling lunch during the hour break between shifts, and the Georgetown tourist who wants the familiar food chain as a reliable choice amid the unfamiliar neighborhood options. The Chipotle format’s transparency about ingredients, which began as a marketing distinction and has become a consumer expectation across the fast casual category, gives the customer the confidence that the combination they order has known nutritional content. Hours run from 10:45am to 10pm daily.