Chipotle & Slow Food DC

So it's not my local meal meal for the week, but it ain't bad for "fast food" The local DC chapter of Slow Food met up today at a local Chipotle regional director for a lunch and learn. I'm pretty wowed. I've been to several places around DC that have really amazing grow/eat local programs, right down to herb gardens in the front of the restaurant. Local is easy, but I'm really impressed by Chipotle's program. For having over 800 restaurants in the US and Canada they are totally committed to 100% natural chicken and pork and making real headway with natural beef. 100% rBGH free milk products and committed to buying local whenever they can, even though it costs more because it tastes better.

After ordering we all sat down together and ate (slowly) and talked amongst the group. Then we headed upstairs in the building to a meeting room and had a really great talk from the regional director Phil Petrilli. Phil talked about alot of great stuff the company is doing, and trying to do. It was great to hear things from the "big corporate" perspective. He mentioned how solar power wasn't working for them, but they were experimenting with solar water heating. How they recycle whatever they can but that stores in buildings had issues relating to the building lease. He also talked about how they wanted to "recycle" other pieces of the business and they were working on small scale composting operations. Local farmers bring in food and take out food waste to compost. Selling the soy oil they use for the chips and tacos for bio-diesel... I was really impressed with how honest he was on what they could and couldn't do and what they had tried and what worked and didn't work. He mentioned that they would love to donate the food at the end of the day to homeless shelters but the legal red tape was so immense, the infrastructure to move and use the food so underdeveloped and the risk of lawsuits so real that very few stores could do it.

It was a fascinating two hours and at the end I've got to say they aren't perfect, but they've got to be as close to perfect as any nationwide chain I've seen. Local, natural and they take care of their workers. So there's my vote, if you are out and you are going fast, go Chipotle and feel good about it.