The once king of fast-casual Mexican food certainly has more than a broken crown. No surprise, Chipotle is struggling. Recently, they were knocked off the top spot for America’s favorite Mexican restaurant, then they had people scratching their heads by talking about going into the burger business. Of course, all of their woes can be traced back to multiple E.coli outbreaks at several Chipotle locations causing the entire chain to close for a bit. It’s hard to bounce back from that, although they’re trying with chorizo, the chain has dropped the ball when it comes to one of their most popular proteins: steak.
According to Eater, the chain has changed the way that they prepare their steak. Pre E.coli Chipotle used to prepare their steaks at each location, grilled fresh. However, Chipotle is now grilling steak at an off-site kitchen. It is then shipped to your local friendly (and hopefully clean) Chipotle where the meat is “marinated and reheated on the grill before being served.” Yum, sounds fresh.
According to Chipotle spokesperson Chris Arnold, fans are loving the newly prepared steak, saying, “it has been great.” Not so if you just look on Twitter where Chipotle aficionados are complaining about it comparing the taste of the meat to Spaghetti-O’s meatballs. Despite the struggles, maybe consumers are simply just tired of Chipotle.
Chipotle has never announced where the E. coli outbreak came from, but it’s a safe bet that it came from contaminated beef from Australia. This makes perfect sense as to why Chipotle is now grilling their meat at an off-site location to the point that it tastes like something that your mother would make for you when you were a kid and she had a busy day at work.
(via Eater)
