judyonthenet

Okay, technically in San Jose, but pretty close. The Camden Park shopping center (on the corner of Camden and Union) has a new Chipotle. It’s “grande” opening is tomorrow (Friday), but apparently Chipotles always have some free-food-all-day promotion the day before it official opens. I assumed there would have been some promotion come opening day, so I was looking forward to checking it out tomorrow. However, when I went to get lunch today, Karen noticed a massive line piling out of the Chipotle and that the shop had a giant “100% off” sign on the front. This diverted us from our original destination (Le Boulanger), and we lined up to get our free lunch.

While you wait online, the Chipotle peons hand out menus and free chips & guac samples. The chips were REALLY salty for some reason. The line moved fairly quickly, so they were obviously prepared for the customers. I got what I usually get at Chipotle: burrito with pinto beans, steak, green chili salsa, sour cream, cheese, and gauc. Basically everything (except bottled drinks… sorry guys, no free beer) on the menu was free, even the ridiculously overpriced guacamole you can add to your food. The fountain drink was free; they pretty much force you to take a fountain drink cup when you get to the register. I thought the wait would be long, but it only took 20-25 minutes to get in line and leave with our food.

I told Kelvin about this deal while I was waiting in line, but he pretty much ignored me. It turns out he ignored me because he thought I was talking about the Chipotle in Cupertino. When I got home from work in the evening and explained it was the store a couple miles from our place, he dragged me back out there for his own free serving. Because it was around dinner time and more people were aware of the deal, the line was longer now. As we waited, we were once again offered chips and guac. I warned Kelvin the chips would be salty, and lo and behold, they were salty. (I recall the guy behind us saying “It’s like I got punched in the face… with a fist… of salt…”) I planned to get a smoothie, but the effort of waiting in line made me get another serving of Chipotle. Yes, I ate Chipotle twice today. And I wasn’t the only one, as I found Ted (who also discovered the deal at lunch) waiting in line a few spots behind me. He even convinced one of his Mountain View friends (Joe) to come down and here and join in on the free burrito action. This time I went for the slightly-less-heavy soft taco with chicken. This time around it took more like 40 minutes.

For those in the area that missed out on free food, don’t worry. According to one of the workers, they’re opening another Chipotle at the Pruneyard in couple months. (I think it’s dumb, since that’s like a couple miles down from Camden Park, though this fact seems to have no effect on Le Boulanger.) There will be another freebie day the day before that store’s “grande” opening.

New thing I learned today: While MacDonald’s used to own 90%+ of Chipotle’s shares (and as a result allowed for Chipotle’s massive growth), they completely divested all their holdings in 2006. Also, those burritos really aren’t that healthy for you…

From ChipotleLovers.com, the nutritional info for my regular burrito (steak with tons of fixins):

Jesus, I can’t believe I ate at Chipotle twice today…