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Chipotle Tests Expanded Menu in Denver Restaurants

By: Chipotle Mexican Grill |  2 Shares     149 Reads

New Menu Offers Greater Variety; Same Outstanding Food Quality

DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE: CMG) (NYSE: CMG.B) today begins a test of a new menu in its Denver-area restaurants which it believes will help customers to order more easily, and better understand the full universe of options at Chipotle. The menu changes are the most significant Chipotle has made in its 15-year history and include:

• New entrée options
• Smaller-sized offerings at lower prices that Chipotle calls its "Low Roller" menu
• Suggested "Featured Items"
• A new kid's menu
• Chipotle's signature burritos, burrito bowls (a burrito without the tortilla), tacos, and salads

The new menu is designed to be more approachable to new customers and to highlight the great variety of options to existing Chipotle customers.

"We have found that many of our customers don't recognize the variety that exists within our menu, and that new customers are sometimes unsure of what to order," said Steve Ells, founder, chairman and co-CEO of Chipotle. "With this menu, we are communicating the nature of variety more clearly, while still making great food affordable and accessible."

While the new menu flaunts frugality, with new items priced from $2.25 to $6.35, it still adheres to Chipotle's commitment to using only the best-tasting ingredients from more sustainable sources that is the hallmark of Chipotle's food.

The new sections on Chipotle's menu include:

Low Roller Menu

The Low Roller menu offers new, smaller-portion-sized meal combinations priced lower to match. However, while Chipotle downsized portions on the Low Roller menu, it did not downsize the quality or taste of the food. The new Soup, Ells' own vegetarian recipe that uses all-natural ingredients, as well as the Single Tacos and Side Salad, continue to deliver on Chipotle's commitment to Food with Integrity. Low Roller options include:

• Soup ($2.99/3.69 with chicken) - 8 oz. cup of vegetarian soup with roasted tomatillos, tomato and hominy; with the option to add naturally raised chicken.
• Chicken Taco & Soup ($4.65) - One soft or crispy taco made with naturally raised chicken, choice of salsa, sour cream or cheese, and lettuce, served with a cup of Soup.
• Single Tacos ($2.25) - Crispy corn, soft flour or soft corn tortilla with a choice of naturally raised meat, salsa, sour cream or cheese, and lettuce.
• Side Salad ($2.95/3.65 with chicken) - Chopped romaine lettuce with salsa and cheese, served with freshly-made chipotle honey-vinaigrette.

Featured Items

While the current Chipotle menu offers more than 65,000 different meal combinations, the new expanded menu includes four new Featured Items all priced around $6 or less. The menu of Featured Items includes:

• Chicken Pozole ($5.55) - Roasted tomatillo, tomato and hominy soup served over cilantro-lime rice and topped with naturally raised grilled chicken and cheese.
• Omnivore ($5.95) - A salad of chopped romaine lettuce with naturally raised chicken, black beans, tomato salsa and cheese. Served with freshly made chipotle-honey vinaigrette.
• Classic Burrito ($5.95) - Naturally raised grilled chicken served in a flour tortilla with cilantro-lime rice, black beans, roasted chili-corn salsa and sour cream.
• Carnitavore ($6.35) - A burrito bowl with naturally raised shredded pork, cilantro-lime rice, pinto beans, tomatillo green-chili salsa and cheese.

Kid's Menu

Chipotle's new Kid's Menu features such child-friendly items as quesadillas, single tacos and a build-your-own taco kit, all priced at less than $4 including juice, organic milk, or a small soda. The Kid's Menu items are made with the same, more sustainably raised ingredients parents have come to expect from Chipotle, with portions and prices that are better suited for kids. Chipotle fusses over quality ingredients so parents don't have to. Options include:

• Kid's Meal - they build it ($3.95) - With this unique twist on a kid's meal, Chipotle is inviting children to get creative with their food. Kids can choose any three ingredients (one naturally raised meat and then two other ingredients from the line, like salsa and cheese) and two crispy or two soft taco shells, all served on a tray. From there, it's up to them to construct and enjoy their tacos. This Kid's Meal also comes with rice and a small order of chips.
• Single Taco - we build it ($3.50) - This option is especially good for families on the go. Rather than being served on the build-your-own tray, Chipotle's crew builds single tacos using soft or crispy shells and a choice of any three items from the line. Single Tacos also come with an order of small chips.
• Small Cheese Quesadilla ($2.95)/Small Meat & Cheese Quesadilla ($3.50) - This classic kid favorite is served with a side of rice or beans, and a small order of chips.

All of the items on the revamped menu feature Chipotle's naturally raised chicken, pork and beef, which come from animals that are humanely raised, never given antibiotics or added hormones (or drugs that behave like hormones), and are fed a pure vegetarian diet. Chipotle uses only dairy products (cheese and sour cream) made with milk from cows that are not treated with the synthetic recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH), and more than 35 percent of the beans it serves are organically grown. Chipotle also uses locally grown produce for all of its restaurants when seasonally available.

Installation of the new menu begins in Denver-area Chipotle restaurants today and continues through April 4.

About Chipotle

Steve Ells, founder, chairman and co-CEO, started Chipotle with the idea that food served fast did not have to be a typical fast food experience. Today, Chipotle continues to offer a focused menu of burritos, tacos, burrito bowls (a burrito without the tortilla) and salads made from fresh, high-quality raw ingredients, prepared using classic cooking methods and served in a distinctive atmosphere. Through our vision of Food with Integrity, Chipotle is seeking better food not only from using fresh ingredients, but ingredients that are sustainably grown and naturally raised with respect for the animals, the land, and the farmers who produce the food. Chipotle opened its first restaurant in 1993 and currently operates more than 830 restaurants.

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