The end of the lunch bowl era

"Chipotle, Sweetgreen and Cava - once stars of the restaurant industry - are struggling as diners tire of all those pick-your-own ingredients piled atop rice or greens. Instead, lunchgoers are choosing offerings with more texture, like sandwiches and tacos, that fill them up and often cost less. Even Steve Ells, the founder of Chipotle and the burrito bowl that rocketed the chain to lunchtime fame, has moved on."

"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."

Build-your-own bowl concepts have faded as diners tire of ingredient-piled rice or greens. Major fast-casual chains such as Chipotle, Sweetgreen and Cava are experiencing weaker demand for bowl-based meals. Consumers are favoring handhelds—sandwiches and tacos—that provide more texture, greater satiety and often lower prices. Chipotle founder Steve Ells opened a sandwich-focused Counter Service with signage and marketing explicitly rejecting bowls. The single-item evolution of the bowl in 2003 helped mainstream premium fast-casual, but shifting tastes and price sensitivity are driving a return to handheld formats among lunchgoers. Younger office workers cite cost and a desire for more filling, portable meals as reasons for the switch.

Read at Boston Herald