Chipotle’s New Menu Compounds the Ill Feeling, Part Two

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I am sitting in my neighborhood Chipotle as I write this. Public Enemy’s “Don’t Believe The Hype” is blasting from the speaker directly above me. It’s loud and angry and rattles the windows.

I have not visited a Chipotle in a few months, maybe more. I came here to see, given the new campaign, if anything has really changed. Here is what I found.

Stepping up to the line, I’m greeted by a small point-of-sale piece proclaiming “I scream, you scream, we all scream for chicken pozole.” I look around. A few patrons are chatting at tables. The employees behind the counter are working diligently — grilling chicken, chopping tomatoes, wiping down work surfaces. No one (at least no one that I can see) is screaming for chicken pozole. I pause and wait for the employee at the tortilla steamer to make eye contact. Is he going to scream for chicken pozole? Does he expect me to? Will we scream together? Oh shit. Five awkward seconds pass before I break the silence. “Ahem, let me see what I want…” I look to the board above his head and that’s when it hits me: this menu ain’t the menu I remember.

The first menu board vaguely offers four “Featured Items”: Classic Burrito, Carnitavore, the aforementioned scream-inducing Chicken Pozole, and Omnivore. The classic burrito is what you expect. The Carnitavore is a bowl option. The Chicken Pozole is their take on the traditional soup with roasted tomatillos, tomatoes and hominy. And the Omnivore is a salad with chicken.

I opt for the Carnitavore. At this point, I could have simply proceeded to the register. No more customization or input is required from me. I wait for the smiling girl at the next station to ask my salsa preference and upsell me a fat dollop of guac. Instead, she asks the tortilla steamer guy. “Salsa verde y queso,” he reminds her in Spanish. The menu is new to her, too. I refer to the Carnitavore on the menu. Rice, pinto beans, carnitas, salsa verde and cheese. It’s all dictated.

I take a seat and eat while further examining the menu. Next to the “Featured Items” sits the familiar burritos and tacos. I assume they still come with custom options for extras. Next to that is a new menu with “Smaller Items.” It’s here I discover something from the advertised so-called Low Roller Menu. Salad and a Taco for $4.25. Nowhere is it mentioned that this is the Low Roller Menu and, I must say, I’m thankful. I can live with the nonspecific “Smaller Items,” as dull as it is. “Low Roller Menu” smacks of typical fast-food gimmicky crap and this food is still far better than that.

Next to the “Smaller Items” menu is a “Kids Menu.” I can’t say for sure when they added a Kids Menu, but I don’t like it. It’s not that I don’t think kids should eat at Chipotle, they just don’t need their own freaking menu. The menu before had plenty of kid-friendly options. Chicken, beef, veggies, rice, beans, cheese, mild salsa. Is Jimmy getting lippy? Spoonful of the hot salsa should remedy that.

The addition of a “Kids Menu” — along with the “Featured Items” and “Smaller Items” — represents what’s wrong with the direction Chipotle is headed. They are complicating a good thing.

Chipotle created an incredible brand and experience based on a simple menu with good ingredients. They didn’t concoct fast food freaks of nature. They didn’t wrap burritos in bacon. They didn’t deep fry them and drizzle them with ranch. They didn’t roll them in frosting. They kept it simple. Their witty, no bullshit black-and-white advertising captured the essence of the experience. The new advertising, like the new menu, has simultaneously complicated the brand while dumbing it down.

What happened? Did customers demand menu options be dictated for them? Was it too much to ask someone to choose his or her own meat, beans and salsa? Do the kids really need an interactive taco kit, where food becomes a plaything?

By the time I leave, Public Enemy has given way to Hootie and The Blowfish on the speakers overhead. The music is bland and nondescript and unobtrusive. I suppose people like it that way.

Comments

  1. spark April 20, 2009

    As one who was involved with

    As one who was involved with a lot of the early Chipotle work, I’m particularly sickened by the current state of the brand.
    It was inspired marketing direction and mostly Denver freelance talent that helped put them on the map. Then their pretty heads got turned by a series of NY/LA agencies who were impressed by the work from this little client but, of course, felt obligated to flog it from various directions until it devolved to the Proctor & Gamble level where it now limps along. Sad that they sold the soul of the brand for a little sushi.

  2. Cholybran April 20, 2009

    I’m in the Seattle area and

    I’m in the Seattle area and me and my 3 sons were at a Chipotle last night (there are only a couple up here), but nothing had changed there yet.

    Chipotle has been mine, and my 3 boys, favorite place to eat for the last 6 years. One of the reasons (other than the kick ass burrito) was that it really didn’t cost much more than standard bullshit fastfood and it was fan-fucking-tastic so paying a little more was WELL WORTH IT- The kids stopped asking to go to McDonalds and started begging to go to Chipotle. The other appeal was it never felt like we were going into a fastfood joint. You didn’t have that nasty greezy feeling you get from other places (and that’s before you’d eat)-

    If that really changes, I don’t think I’ll go back. Lord knows I quite the other bullshit fastfood joints for having a shitty experience and I can’t say I’m sorry for it.

  3. EG April 20, 2009

    I’m with you that the new ad

    I’m with you that the new ad campaign isn’t as pithy and witty, but I have to admit I really like the idea of being able to order just one taco. I love the taste of Chipotle’s food but I’ve always found it rather intimidating. I usually order the tacos but struggle to finish two. I’m really excited about these smaller menu options and I hope they make their way to the East coast.

  4. Erika April 20, 2009

    It’s not so much the campaign

    It’s not so much the campaign that bothers me … it’s the bigger corporate decisions trickling down to adland.

    I have a friend who works for Chipotle and he told me once that menu additions are extremely hard to get approved and the old Chipotle mainstays will never change. The biggest addition they made to their menu in the past (how many years?) was a salad … that is, before this mess.

    Con Queso cheese dip? Nope.
    Quesadilla? Nada.
    Other suggestions? Poo-pooed.

    Low roller menu? ABSOULTELY!

    Why all the high-and-mighty scoffing at consumer suggestions for a quesadilla (even though if you ask real nice and they aren’t too busy, you can have one made) when the best idea corporate(?) can come up with to retain business is this lame low-roller menu??

    Especially when taco bell promises a taco of their own for 79¢. (I know, it’s taco bell compared to chipotle but consider if Chipotle offered their taco for a buck … Now THAT would be a great deal!)

    People will pay for things they like. Period.

    If Chipotle actually listened to the suggestions of their patrons, they might actually end up with some killer enhancements to the old mainstays instead of the a-ha farts of some corporate schmucks.

  5. The Denver Egotist April 20, 2009

    Keep in mind, this is a

    Keep in mind, this is a campaign (and menu) that’s being tested in Denver only for a limited time. The company is based here and therefore chose our city as its test bed. Hopefully, they decide to make the proper adjustments before taking it to the masses.

  6. Matt Chiabotti April 21, 2009

    Yeah, there’s a lot of bad

    Yeah, there’s a lot of bad going on with this, but the biggest problem I see is that, yes, “They are complicating a good thing,” and I would argue it is largely in the name of expanding business, not merely retaining it.

    I know we are all (most of us anyway) in the ad-game, and the name of that game is usually, “help grow your client’s business, or at least their profit margins, and you will reap the rewards,” but there’s something to be said for staying true to what might have brought you any modicum of success in the past.

    In Chipotle’s case they were blessed to have massive success with such a simple and delicious menu. They’ve never been a Taco-Del-Taco-John’s-Bell and never will be. To go after the customers of said establishments is just plain greedy, and probably ill advised, but I guess only time will tell.

    Meanwhile, I think Illegal Pete’s is still open and I’m kind of hungry for a burrito.

  7. crock April 21, 2009

    Oh god. I just realized I

    Oh god. I just realized I live approximately 800 miles from my next Big Potato. Damn you, Matt Chiabotti, and your Illegal Pete’s temptations.

  8. paul suggett

    paul suggett April 21, 2009

    I love the way Illegal Pete’s

    I love the way Illegal Pete’s mixes all that stuff up before they wrap your stomach-expanding burrito. Taste’s awesome. May have to go there for lunch today.

  9. Carrie Schrepfer April 22, 2009

    You’ve always been able to

    You’ve always been able to order 1 taco instead of 3, or add chips to the bottom of your burrito bowl, or ask for a quesadilla for your kids. The wonderful thing was that the only people who asked for it were those who truly knew what Chipotle was all about. “Here are our ingredients and options, see? Put any of them together in your format of choice, we don’t mind.”

    I hate that the people in front of me are now going to stand there for 5 minutes longer trying to decide what they want to put into their face, simply because there are 20 more options on the menu and they need to read through each one.

  10. KC Koch April 24, 2009

    I went to Chipotle the other

    I went to Chipotle the other day and ordered one of the pre-fab choices. They didn’t ask me for any input at all. They just made it all on their own. It reminded me of the first time I left my child at daycare. My baby in someone else’s hands. It’s not a pretty feeling.

  11. Josh May 1, 2009

    You can actually order a

    You can actually order a single taco at their place currently. You don’t even need the low roller menu. It is around $2 a taco. I have done this numerous times. Usually when my wife and I split the tacos we just ask for an extra one (so we each can have two) and they just charge us 2 more dollars. No need, people just need to ask.

  12. Kevin May 8, 2009

    Keep that crap in Colorado

    Keep that crap in Colorado and don’t touch my Chipotle stores here in TX!

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