The Chipotle Effect: How Chefs Are Reinventing Fast Food

The Chipotle Effect: How Chefs Are Reinventing Fast Food

With top chefs extending their brands to fast-casual restaurant chains modeled on Chipotle and Shake Shack, food on the go is really going places. Here’s a guide to the most anticipated openings of the coming year

By Jay Cheshes in the Wall Street Journal

 “FROM THIS POINT to the register, where we’ll place our order, it should take about six-and-a-half minutes,” said chef Franklin Becker. He was standing at the end of a long line snaking through the Little Beet, his popular lunch spot in Midtown Manhattan. Part of a new chain launching seven more branches this year, the restaurant serves gluten-free bowls of vegetables, proteins and grains—food that’s fresh, wholesome and designed to move.

“Once we’re at the register,” Mr. Becker continued, “we should have our meal in under two minutes. With a concept like this, throughput [rate of processing] is key.” Accustomed to serving $35 entrees stocked with luxury ingredients, most recently at New York’s Abe & Arthur’s restaurant, he has gained a new set of skills and degree of mass-market appeal here, serving, on average, 1,500 diners a day, most of them in and out of the restaurant in 20 minutes or so.

He’s part of a tidal wave of top chefs and restaurateurs suddenly flooding into the fast-food market. This new elevated branch is known as “quick-serve” in some quarters, “fast-casual” in others. The two biggest inspirations: burrito giant Chipotle, launched almost 22 years ago by former chef Steve Ells —now expanding at a rate of four new branches a week—and restaurateur Danny Meyer ’s Shake Shack burger chain, which evolved from a cart in a public park into a global behemoth valued at over 1 billion after a recent IPO.

The landscape is about to get much more crowded, with at least a dozen new high-minded grab-and-go concepts set to debut or expand this year. It’s an opportunity for some of the country’s most rarefied chefs to reach a much larger audience than usual at a far lower price point—and cash in if they’re lucky. “Serious restaurant chefs are all scrambling to get into fast-casual,” said Miami restaurateur John Kunkel, who’s launching a new fried chicken chain this spring. “If they tell you otherwise they’re probably lying.”

High-end-restaurant veterans are reimagining pizza, pasta and burgers, and unveiling new spins on fast, healthy eating. “I wanted to offer something that’s mobile but not terrible for you,” said Chris Jaeckle, the New York chef behind the Japanese-inflected Italian restaurant All’onda, who just launched the sushi hand-roll concept Uma Temakeria.

Most new entrants hew closely to the Chipotle template: sleek design, customizable menu, open-kitchen ordering line. “We’ve shown you can have a fast-food model that’s convenient and accessible to a lot of people and of great quality too,” said Mr. Ells. “I think it’s great news that other people are applying different kinds of cuisines to this enlightened model.”

Of course, chefs’ personal brands expand right along with their chains. This month, Washington, D.C.-based mega-chef José Andrés is launching a quick-serve concept called Beefsteak. “We know, by name, who is behind our iPhone—we associate Steve Jobs with Apple in such an amazing way,” he said. “Why shouldn’t we also know the name of the chef behind our mass food production?”

Chef-Driven Fast-Casual Chains Coming Soon to a Block Near You

What are you in the mood for? A hedonistic splurge or a healthy lunch on the go? Familiar comfort food or something a little more surprising? With some of the biggest names on the culinary scene getting into the fast-food game, the range of appealing options spans both of those spectrums. Here are the most anticipated openings of the coming year.

FAT NOODLE

At the Helm: Joshua Skenes

Concept: Bold Chinese

Typical Dish: Hand-pulled egg noodles with preserved-vegetable broth and XO sauce

While a meal at Joshua Skenes ’s San Francisco tasting-menu restaurant Saison might run four hours and $500 a head, at the new chain he’s launching near the city’s waterfront this summer, quick-serve bowls of Chinese noodles—hand-pulled to order in an open kitchen—shouldn’t cost more than $8 apiece. The new venture, in partnership with Umami Burger founder Adam Fleischman, champions the strong, spicy flavors of southwestern China, which the chef fell in love with while studying Chinese martial arts. “Its food that’s close to my heart,” he said. The partners are considering future locations in New York and Los Angeles, and maybe even Shanghai and Taipei.

INDAY

At the Helm: Phil Suarez

Concept: Indian for everyone

Typical Dish: Black lentils with cumin and quinoa topped with grilled chicken and cucumber-yogurt

Young entrepreneur Basu Ratnam lined up veteran restaurateur Phil Suarez as the primary investor for his quick-serve healthy-Indian-food concept. The first branch opens in May in Manhattan, with star chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten (Mr. Suarez’s longtime restaurant partner) in a consulting role. “I think there’s a huge opportunity to overturn the old stereotypes about Indian cuisine as intimidating or heavy,” said Mr. Ratnam, “and do it in a way that’s contemporary and fun.”

BEEFSTEAK

At the Helm: José Andrés

Concept: Fast, healthy, fun

Typical Dish: Bulgur with bok choy, spinach, green-herb sauce and crispy seaweed

José Andrés’s first fast-casual concept, launching at Washington, D.C.’s George Washington University this month, takes a playful approach to healthful eating. The mix-and-match format features a vast array of grains, proteins and seasonal produce, cooked fresh to order in an olive-oil-and-water bath. “I’m going to give you endless possibilities, literally millions of combinations,” said the chef. Vegetables, increasingly prominent on all of his menus, will be the real focus here. “It’ll be a fun place, with delicious food,” he said, “where vegetables misbehave, and you’re in control.”

LEWELLYN’S CHICKEN & BISCUITS

At the Helm: John Kunkel

Concept: Superior Southern

Typical Dish: Fried chicken and buttermilk biscuits

Miami restaurateur John Kunkel named his new chain after his grandmother, source of the recipe for the fried chicken he’ll serve there (also featured at his hot Miami Beach restaurant Yardbird Southern Table & Bar). The first branch launches at the University of Miami this summer, followed by another at the city’s international airport. Mr. Kunkel hopes to do for fried chicken what Shake Shack has for burgers. “The lesson for all of us in fast-casual is keep it simple,” he said. “If you’re going to do something, specialize, and do it better than everyone else.”

PORANO PASTA + GELATO

At the Helm: Gerard Craft

Concept: Lunchbreak Italian

Typical Dish: Strozzapreti with Sunday sugo and Grana Padano

Chef Gerard Craft runs four of the most celebrated restaurants in St. Louis. This spring he’ll launch a quick-serve version of his most populist spot, Pastaria, featuring fresh pasta cooked-to-order on timers for speed and consistency, with your choice of sauce, protein and toppings. To ensure the noodles don’t wilt into mush, he’s settled on one shape—tightly coiled strozzapreti—with enough structure to travel. “The majority of fast food pasta is gross,” he said. “There’s a real hole in the market when it comes to Italian cuisine.”

PIZZERIA LOCALE

At the Helm: Lachlan MacKinnon-Patterson

Concept: Neapolitan express

Typical Dish: Diavolo pizza with smoked mozzarella, pepperoni and basil

Chef Lachlan MacKinnon-Patterson and sommelier Bobby Stuckey spent years tossing around ideas for a collaboration with Chipotle founder Steve Ells before settling on a quick-serve version of their Boulder pizzeria. The first branch launched in Denver in spring 2013, offering Neapolitan pies assembled from scratch in three minutes. Initially Mr. Ells’s involvement was under wraps. “We knew we’d be under a microscope,“ said Mr. MacKinnon-Patterson, who’s planning new branches in Kansas City and Denver. ”We didn’t want the added distraction of the Chipotle connection.”

PASTA FLYER

At the Helm: Mark Ladner

Concept: Pasta, minus the gluten and the guilt

Typical Dish: Gluten-free rigatoni with porcini sauce

Mark Ladner has developed a gluten-free dry noodle that cooks up as fast as Japanese ramen. Last year the chef, who also runs New York’s four-star Del Posto, launched a test-run out of a food truck funded by a Kickstarter campaign, and he’s currently trying to nail down investors, including his boss Mario Batali , for the first brick-and-mortar location, which he hopes to launch in New York this year. “I’ve always missed the more casual, less elitist aspects of food service,” he said.

Poster's comment:  There's no reason, other than imagination, why we home cookers can't do the same.