The Founder of Chipotle Says Customers Have ‘Slop Bowl’ Fatigue — Here’s What He Says Is the Next Big Thing

Steve Ells invented the Chipotle bowl by accident in 2003. Now he thinks the future is in slow-roasted sandwiches.

Steve Ells invented the burrito bowl, and now he thinks people might be suffering from “slop bowl” fatigue. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, the founder and former CEO of Chipotle talks about his new concept, Counter Service, a sandwich shop that launched last year in New York City and plans to expand to Charlotte and Dallas next year.

Counter Service specializes in slow-roasted meats, homemade bread and made-in-house sauces and relishes. The concept pivots away from an earlier post-Chipotle venture, a vegan restaurant built around robotics. It uses technology that flags incorrectly assembled orders, part of a broader system predicting sales using traffic, transit and weather data.

Ells says the appeal is in the details that most chains skip. “The pieces of meat are not perfectly shaped like the things you see in these chain sandwich places,” he said. “We’re making all of our sauces and relishes and garnishes. It’s difficult to do these things.” After 27 years eating Chipotle nearly every day, he says he now eats at Counter Service just as often.