Will Chipotle prove popular in Mexico?

The Chipotle fever is real. Founded successful 1993 successful Denver, Colorado, the marque rapidly gained designation crossed the United States for its “classically-cooked existent food,” (at slightest according to the company’s existent Chief Business Development Officer, Nate Lawton.) And however could they not? Chipotle Mexican Grill is not Taco Bell. You don’t get the dreaded ‘taco shells’ — sacrilege to a Mexican autochthonal palate — or non-spicy guacamole. It benignant of tastes real.

Today a multinational chain, with stores from the United Kingdom to Kuwait, the institution runs astatine slightest 3,700 locations worldwide, arsenic per their most caller count. Now, the beloved U.S. grill is aiming to present the ‘Chipotle fever’ to Mexico.

The precise archetypal Chipotle store, adjacent the University of Denver campus. (CW221/English Wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons)

Partnering with Alsea, the Mexican corp that operates Burger King, Starbucks and different accelerated nutrient brands, Chipotle is assured that “[Mexico’s] familiarity with our ingredients and affinity for caller nutrient marque it an charismatic maturation marketplace for our company,” arsenic they wrote past week successful a statement.

Scheduled for aboriginal 2026, the archetypal store is thought to beryllium opening successful Mexico City. The company, however, has not yet revealed the authoritative location. And yes, the announcement has created precocious expectations successful Mexico. Even El Universal paper recently described the marque arsenic “[the restaurant] that reinvented Mexican food.”

Given that our cuisine is the merchandise of thousands of years of Prehispanic heritage, merged with the Spanish power successful the Colonial era, this mightiness travel arsenic a small spot of a stretch.  

Are Mexicans truly brainsick for Chipotle Mexican Grill? 

Chipotle Mexican Grill is not Mexican astatine all. It is simply a Mexican-inspired restaurant. And we, Mexicans, instrumentality large pridefulness successful our thoroughfare food. Lawton was close erstwhile he recently said that Mexico has “affinity for caller food”. We emotion our freshly prepared salsa and precocious handmade tortillas. When we deliberation of having tacos — oregon burritos, successful the bluish states — we surely bash not deliberation of eating astatine a grill.

On the contrary, we deliberation of much accessible alternatives. Even earlier the UNESCO included our cuisine successful the List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity successful 2010, we already held carnes asadas successful the north, and continued to sojourn our maestros parrilleros, with their determination particularities. They are often budget-friendly, caller and adjacent to our palates.

Will Chipotle Mexican Grill take a high-end determination for its archetypal store successful Mexico? (Juan Carlos Fonseca Mata/Wikimedia Commons )

Why, then, does a accelerated nutrient institution from the U.S. make specified expectations successful the Mexican market? My conjecture is that we are curious: arsenic funny arsenic we were astir the opening of the archetypal Shake Shack, backmost successful 2019. People were anxious to spot what they had to offer. When we realized a burger was implicit 250 pesos, the thought of eating astatine Shake Shack became a batch little interesting. A akin improvement was seen with Wendy’s and Tim Hortons, that simply went retired of manner — and business, successful the lawsuit of Wendy’s — erstwhile the novelty wore off. 

It is interesting, though, that restaurants that are regarded arsenic not-so-pricey options successful the U.S. take high-end locations successful the main cities successful Mexico. To this day, Shake Shack has stores successful Reforma Avenue, Santa Fe and different A+ neighborhoods. It’s hard to ideate section radical successful Mexico City getting successful their cars and driving done postulation with the sole volition of going to Chipotle Mexican Grill, honestly. I simply can’t representation a household driving each the mode to Santa Fe regularly to person a burrito bowl.

“Chipotle is committed to making its nutrient much accessible to everyone,” the institution announced successful a caller property release. Even though this mightiness beryllium true, volition the Chipotle’s prices beryllium comparable to those of section marketplace stalls oregon trusted thoroughfare puestos? Will they connection the freshness of the nutrient of the day, which we admit successful Mexico from our maestros parrilleros? Hardly.

Andrea Fischer contributes to the features table astatine Mexico News Daily. She has edited and written for National Geographic en Español and Muy Interesante México, and continues to beryllium an advocator for thing that screams science. Or yoga. Or both.