"Even Steve Ells, the founder of Chipotle and the burrito bowl that rocketed the chain to lunchtime fame, has moved on. At a Manhattan location of his new concept Counter Service, there's a red neon sign depicting a lunch bowl with a slash through it. It's a bowl-free zone, reinforced by a website that proclaims "we love sandwiches" and "anything, as long as it can go on bread.""
""We've gone back to handheld," said Ells, who left Chipotle in 2020. That came more than 15 years after debuting a bowl in response to customers opening up their burritos and asking for a fork to eat the innards. The bowl quickly became the chain's top-selling menu item and spawned a boom that led to chains such as Cava and Sweetgreen."
Americans are tiring of customizable rice- or greens-topped "bowl" meals, prompting traffic declines at chains like Chipotle, Sweetgreen and Cava. Lunch diners increasingly choose handheld offerings such as sandwiches and tacos that provide more texture, greater satiety and often lower prices. Counter Service in Manhattan promotes a bowl-free identity with neon signage and website messaging celebrating sandwiches and bread-based items. The bowl format, which surged after Chipotle introduced it in 2003, became a top-selling item and inspired a broader fast-casual boom. Some customers cite cost concerns and describe bowl meals as unappealing "slop," driving a return to handheld formats.
Read at Los Angeles Times
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]