Chipotle was meant to fund a fine-dining restaurant until burritos took over
Steve Ells opened the first Chipotle in Denver in 1993 with an $85,000 loan from his father. They reckoned it needed to sell 107 burritos a day to make money. A month later it was selling over 1,000, and Ells dropped his plan to use the profits for an upscale restaurant.
Ells trained at the Culinary Institute of America and worked as a line cook in San Francisco, where he noticed the crowds at taquerias in the Mission District. He wanted to prove fresh ingredients could still be served fast, and Chipotle became one of the first fast casual chains. The name comes from the Nahuatl word for a smoked, dried jalapeño.
McDonald's gave it rocket fuel. It invested in 1998, when Chipotle had 16 restaurants, all in Colorado, and became the largest investor by 2001. By 2005 there were over 500. At the January 2006 stock market debut, shares doubled on the first day, the best US listing in six years. McDonald's sold out entirely that October, having put in about $360 million and taken out $1.5 billion; it had pushed for drive-throughs and breakfast, which Ells resisted.
Not every idea worked. Ells launched or bought spinoffs in soul food, Southeast Asian cooking, pizza and burgers, and the reality-show winner Soul Daddy closed after eight weeks. In 2018 Taco Bell's boss Brian Niccol took over as CEO, lifting the share price 12 percent on the news, and Ells cut all ties with the company in 2020.
Growth has continued anyway. Revenue hit $9.9 billion in 2023, with 37.4 percent coming from digital orders, delivery and its Chipotlane pickup windows, a drive-through of sorts where you can only collect food ordered ahead. Chipotle reached 4,000 locations by December 2025, and in 2026 opened its first restaurants in Mexico, Saudi Arabia and South Korea. It has even tested a machine that peels and cuts an avocado in under 30 seconds.
Source: Chipotle Mexican Grill
