Chipotle Scraps Farmesa Fresh Eatery spinoff, Ghost Kitchen Cease Operations

Chipotle Mexican Grill will no longer pursue its Farmesa Fresh Eatery spinoff business as its partner, Kitchen United, shut down its ghost kitchens. The menu on the spinoff eatery mainly consists of customizable bowls. Still, the restaurant will give this up now since the ghost kitchens in Santa Monica ceased operations in February of this year.

Chipotle’s Plan for the Abandoned Farmesa Spinoff

According to CNBC, the ghost kitchens were forced to close because their parent company was experiencing financial difficulties. Chipotle’s chief customer and technology officer, Curt Garner, told CNBC on Wednesday, April 24, that the company has no plans to launch a freestanding model of the Farmesa eatery.

Garner added that while the company is abandoning the spinoff, the Farmesa Fresh brand will continue to live on as Chipotle’s innovation lab for creating new menu items. In any case, the restaurant chain shared that it got the name Farmesa by combining “farm” and “mesa,” the Spanish term for table. As the name suggests, Chipotle was looking to apply the farm-to-table approach to its restaurant service.

Chipotle Shifts Focus to Its Brand

As the Farmesa Fresh Eatery is discontinued, Chipotle is now shifting its focus primarily to its own brand. It will dedicate its time and efforts to its stores in and outside the United States. This is timely because its global business is growing.

The company’s chief executive officer, Brian Niccol, told analysts during the company’s earnings call on Wednesday, “Obviously, if the opportunity presents itself where it would make sense for us to do something outside of the brand, so I would never want to say never, but it’s just not a focus for us right now.”

The CEO added via press release for the first quarter 2024 financial results, “The results we are seeing from our focus on developing exceptional people, preparing delicious food and fast throughput gives me confidence that we can achieve our long-term target of more than doubling our business in North America and expanding internationally.”

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