Business & Tech
Camping Out for Burritos
Campers settled in at The Shops at Oak Creek Sunday night for a chance to win free burritos for a year at the newly opened Freebird World Burrito.
Dozens of dedicated burrito lovers camped out in front of the yet-to-be-opened Freebirds World Burrito at The Shops at Oak Creek Sunday night just for a chance to win free burritos. The frenzy was part of the nation-wide chain’s grand opening contest to grant the first 25 people in line free burritos for a year. The restaurant officially opened its doors at 11 a.m. Monday morning.
The first person received their "burrito fanatic" pass at 9 a.m. on Sunday morning. By 8 p.m. Sunday night, all 25 were handed out.
Troy and Maria Looper were the first two people to get their 'fanatics' passes. The Looper's discovered the promotion by accident when they saw the restaurant while travelling on the 101 freeway. "I grew up with Freebirds in Texas where I went to college,” said Troy. “It was a tradition before or after an A&M game. We'd hit up Freebirds."
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When the Loopers tried to stop for dinner, they discovered that the restaurant wasn’t opened for business yet but were told about the promotion. Since Loopers are teachers currently on vacation, they decided to return to camp out. They’d been there since midnight Saturday.
"We decided to camp out and have a good time," said Maria. “We were the only one's until number three showed up."
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senior John Rasta barely made the cut, coming in at 24. "You know, when you are really hungry after a long night, you just want to come and get a burrito, you know?" Now Rasta will get to enjoy at least 1 free burrito a week thanks to the promotion.
"We are a very different restaurant; we're not normal," said Brian Solan, marketing coordinator for the Agoura Hills location. "Our burritos are made in a from scratch kitchen, so that means that everything is made on the premises. We have no freezers and our chicken is antibiotic and hormone free and our beef is grass fed. Everything is fresh."
Freebirds is a chain of restaurants that started in Santa Barbara in 1987 and has since branched out to Texas, Oklahoma and six other locations in California. The grand opening in Agoura represents the 62nd restaurant in the chain.