Who Knew? Nation's Capital is Ground Zero for Chipotle

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Washington, D.C., home of the nation’s capital, the White House, the Smithsonian museums...and the most Chipotle restaurants? Yep, turns out that D.C. residents really like those foil-wrapped burritos with the fresh ingredients.

DC’s most famous resident, President Obama, made headlines last year during a visit to a DC Chipotle when he reached across the sneeze guard to point out the ingredients he wanted.

The fast-casual restaurants offers up burritos, bowls, tacos, salads and chips and guac.

According to Bloomberg Business, there are more Chipotle restaurants in Washington, D.C. than in any other city: “One location seeing particularly strong growth is Washington D.C., according to analysts at JPMorgan. In 2005, JPMorgan estimates that Chipotle had around 10 locations per million D.C. residents, and by 2014 had grown to just over 30 locations.”

A location finder on the Chipotle Web site shows there are 16 eateries in DC proper; if you expand that to the “DC metro area,” to places like Bethesda, Chevy Chase and Arlington, it doubles.

After DC on the “most Chipotles” list comes Colorado and Ohio. Company headquarters are in Denver, where it was founded by Steve Ells, a Culinary Institute of America grad.

Three years ago, the company began testing a new Asian fast casual food concept, ShopHouse, along the same lines as Chipotle. In addition to three Los Angeles locations, there are four locations in, where else? Washington, D.C.