Chipotle Set to Open March 29 (Delayed from March 22)

Update (March 14): the opening has been pushed back one week to March 29. The story has been updated to reflect the change.

Denver-based "gourmet" burrito purveyor Chipotle will be opening the doors to its Edgewater restaurant on March 29. The franchise, the fourth to open in Anne Arundel County, is located at the Village at Lee Airpark shopping center.

Chipotle is known for attempting to serve sustainable and organic food, including burritos, fajitas, burrito bowls, tacos and salads.

According to a statement released by Chipotle, in 2010:

• more than 50 percent of produce for their 1,100 restaurants came from small and mid-sized local family farms;
• all of their pork and chicken products were naturally and humanely-raised on an all-vegetarian diet with no added hormones or antibiotics;
• 85 percent of the beef served was naturally and humanely raised;
• dairy products were made from recombinant bovine grown hormone (rBGH)-free milk; and
• black and pinto beans were organically grown.

The company started with a single store in Denver in 1993, where according to a report in the Rocky Mountain News, owner-operator Steve Ells figured he had to sell 107 burritos a day to break even. After one month, the little shop in a former ice cream parlor was selling over 1,000 burritos a day.

From there, the store grew to several stores in the Denver area and, by 1999, the million-dollar franchise was opening stores outside of the state of Colorado.

The company didn't always have an eye toward sustainability. As the company expanded, Ells, a Culinary Institute of America (CIA)-trained chef, decided in 2001 to attempt to increase the use of locally grown produce and organically grown and humanely-raised meat and dairy products.

In fact, with the opening of the store just weeks away, Chipotle headquarters called Edgewater Patch to find out the names and locations of locally-owned family farms.

According to their 2009 annual report, the cost of opening each new restaurant is around $850,000.

In a statement, Ells said, "there aren’t a lot of moving parts to our menu, so we can focus on grilling the perfect chicken, steaming the perfect rice, slow-cooking the best beans and finding the freshest avocados to mash into guacamole. The flavor of our food is complex, but we use very simple ingredients."

The other Anne Arundel Chipotles are located at:

• 557 Ritchie Highway in Severna Park;
• 2002 Annapolis Mall in Annapolis; and
• 2503 Brandermill Blvd. in Gambrills.