After Steve Ells graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, he worked as a line cook at Stars in San Francisco. He noticed the popularity of taquerías and San Francisco burritos in the area, and in 1993 he went to Denver to open the first Chipotle burrito restaurant near the University of Denver campus.
His goal was to sell 107 burritos a day to make enough money to open a fine dining establishment. Instead, the new restaurant began selling 1,000 burritos a day. Chipotle quickly expanded, and the concept of fast casual dining has been introduced to mainstream America: food of a higher quality than fast food, but does include table service.
Today, Chipotle has over 1500 locations and a market capitalization (as of this writing) of $15.23 billion.
