A new Chipotle opened across the street from Guilford College on Thursday, Oct. 17. The location hopes to attract customers from both Guilford College and nearby apartments.
This Chipotle opened recently when it was met with swarms of eager customers. The Chipotle is open from 10:45 a.m. to 10 p.m. Yasser Bahi, a worker at this restaurant, says the busiest hours are “definitely 12–1 p.m. and then 5–7 p.m.”
According to the Greensboro News and Record, this is Chipotle’s sixth location in Greensboro, reflecting the high demand for Chipotle’s healthy and tasty options. Amiyah Jacques, a customer all the way from Charlotte, says, “I went to Chipotle because I wanted a healthier food option for my boyfriend.”
This Chipotle sits in an accessible area for nearby residents and Guilford students alike. Being just a five-minute walk from Dana Auditorium, the new location serves as a convenient way for Guilford students to grab a quick bite. Bahi estimates that about half of customers are students. He says, “We have a lot of customers from Guilford College, a lot of customers from ECG (Early College at Guilford) as well, and then Western High.” The restaurant even features what they call a “Chipotlane,” a place for cars to pick up digital orders.
My own experience at the new Chipotle was pleasant. While the air is quite cold inside, the workers are warm and welcoming. Smooth music plays from the lightbulb-studded ceiling, adding to the sleek brown-and-gray theme of the restaurant.
However stylish the Chipotle looks from the inside and outside, the food needs to taste good to compete with other restaurants around Guilford. To compare this location to existing Chipotles, I bought identical bowls from the new restaurant and the one on Wendover Avenue. I conducted a blind taste test with a panel of experts — myself and three of my friends — to see which bowl came out on top. The bowl from the new Chipotle was ranked higher by all four judges, scoring an average of 7.8 on a 10-point scale. The Wendover bowl scored an average of 7.4.
While I’ve had nothing but praise for this Chipotle so far, some students say otherwise. Ria Bakthisaran, a junior at ECG, caught me in the Chipotle parking lot with two burrito bowls. She said “you should’ve seen the portion sizes yesterday, I went at 4 p.m. and they were out of almost everything. My friend wanted chicken and they told us there was a fifteen-minute wait.”
Customers have found noticeable differences between this Chipotle and others: “In Charlotte, they actually put more portions,” says Jacques.
The high demand at the new Chipotle has certainly affected people’s sentiment towards the restaurant. The Chipotle currently has a Google rating of 2.6, which comes mostly from the smaller portion sizes, a common complaint present at thousands of other Chipotles.
Contrary to others, the bowl I ordered was filled to the top with ingredients, along with those of the people in front of me. The worker asked me if everything was perfect before I paid, a kind gesture for a notoriously stingy company. A few months ago, the CEO of Chipotle confirmed that at least 10% of Chipotle locations were decreasing portion sizes.
Bahi explained his experience training and working at the restaurant for three weeks. The workers at Chipotle prepared for two weeks before opening day. “We’d be cooking for ourselves, and then whatever food we have at the end of the day we give to a food bank,” Bahi said.
The restaurant’s environment was bustling with customers from the first day. Bahi didn’t work on opening day, but he worked that Thursday and Saturday. “That Saturday was super hectic, super crazy,” he says. Once the excitement around this new Chipotle dies down, it could become another classic lunch spot for all Guilford College students.
