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By CHRIS SHERMAN
Published April 13, 2005
I gave Chipotle Mexican Grill, the hip MexDonald's for the new millennium, a tough test. Some might say unfair.
I stopped into its first Tampa Bay location the morning after dinner at El Taconazo, better known as the beloved taco bus in Seminole Heights. El Taconazo serves classic tacos, burritos and tortas made by hand, real food at unreal prices of $1.50 a taco and $5.75 for a whole meal you can't finish.
A standard too high for fast-food chain Mexican and most new generation wrap traps. Chipotle Mexican Grill had me at the bay leaf, an actual herb floating in the carnitas, proof that the pork had indeed simmered in its juices and real spices. Not "our special herbs and spices," as packaged and bland as a vegetable medley, but lovely thyme, juniper and fresh pepper. Bits of the pork still have crisp seared skin, too.
Guess what I found in the barbacoa beef, besides a punch of cumin and clove? Fat. Just a little piece of the kind you'd find in pot roast that had been braised for hours.
That's real cooking, not what I expect in a place with 430 outlets in the heart of shopping mall America. And it shows in most of the short menu, tacos and burritos, in thousands of ways (without tortillas or rice for carbophobes).
Chipotle was started in 1993 by Steve Ells, a young chef who was trying to raise money for a high-end restaurant. His best lessons for Chipotle came not from his training at the Culinary Institute of America, but from attentive eating with the taco masters in San Francisco's Mission District, where cheap, authentic food was a hit with chefs and foodies as much as homesick Mexicans.
When Chipotle succeeded in Denver and started to grow, McDonald's scouts spotted it and bought a minority interest that has grown to more than 90 percent. Even so, Chipotle is run out of Denver and wants to be seen as a partner of McDonald's, not a subsidiary.
It should, for Chipotle can teach fast-food giants -- and those they feed -- the taste of onsite, from-scratch cooking that goes beyond slicing and dicing hard tomatoes.
Diners get a choice of black beans or rich, creamy pintos, one of the salsas is roasted corn kernels with chili, and the lettuce is dark, leafy green. The guacamole is fresh, and even the rice is tossed with lime and cilantro. That will disappoint those used to a peppery Spanish rice, but I like the idea; indeed, I'd crank up the cilantro and maybe add a little heat. I'd also up the chipotle pepper quotient and vinegar in the tomatillo salsas.
Meat, however, shows the way. Few other places offer the option of pork, and it is the shredded pork and beef that are the best choices. Chicken and even chunks of pinkish grilled steak don't compare.
There's clearly new flavor in chains. I'll stick to real taquerias, where I can get chorizo sausage, barbecued lamb and sweet pork al pastor in my tacos, and change back from a five. But I can taste why Chipotle's version has lines out the door.
Chipotle Mexican Grill 309 N West Shore Blvd., Tampa
Phone: (813) 289-9820
Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily
Details: Credit cards, beer license pending, smoking outdoors only
Price: $4.95 to $5.50
-- Chris Sherman sherman@tampabay.com
[Last modified April 13, 2005, 16:28:20]
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