Chipotle Mexican Grill has started test marketing Smoked Brisket at 64 restaurants throughout Cincinnati, Ohio and part of Sacramento, California. The fast-casual restaurant chain’s latest protein offering features smoked beef brisket that is seasoned with a special spice blend, seared on the grill every day, and finished with a sauce made with Mexican peppers.
“We’re thrilled to offer a new, responsibly-sourced brisket that tastes terrific and meets our integrity standards,” said Chris Brandt, chief marketing officer. “The richness of our real Smoked Brisket recipe delivers a craveable new flavor to our guests as we continue to innovate across our menu.”
Chipotle is leveraging its “stage-gate process” to listen, test and learn from customer feedback, and iterate before deciding on a national launch strategy. In 2019 and 2020, three new menu items, Carne Asada, Supergreens Salad Mix and Queso Blanco, successfully completed the process and were rolled out across the United States. In July, Chipotle announced it is testing Cilantro-Lime Cauliflower Rice at restaurants in Denver and throughout Wisconsin, in addition to a digital order-only quesadilla in Cleveland and Indianapolis.
Brisket will be available for in-restaurant, online, mobile and contactless delivery orders at participating locations for a limited time.Headquartered in Newport Beach, California, Chipotle Mexican Grill had over 2,700 restaurants open for business as of September 30, 2020, in the USA, Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Germany. It is the only restaurant company of its size that owns and operates all its units. Steve Ells, founder and former executive chairman, first opened Chipotle with a single restaurant in Denver, Colorado in 1993. Today the publicly listed company, which trades as CMG on the New York Stock Exchange, employs more than 94,000 people systemwide.
