flâneur

At Kernel, Chipotle’s Steve Ells Is Trying to Solve Lunch

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This article was featured in One Great Story, New York’s reading recommendation newsletter. Sign up here to get it nightly. At Hudson Eats, an upscale food court in lower Manhattan, the bankers and media workers descending from nearby office towers can find anything they dream of for lunch — so long as they dream in bowl form. There are build-your-own bento bowls at Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar, build-your-own bone-broth rice bowls at Springbone Kitchen, build-your-own burrito bowls at Dos Toros, build-your-own Middle Eastern bowls at Naya, and build-your-own “seasonal comfort food” bowls at Dig. This is the way untold millions of Americans eat lunch now: by shuffling through a base → protein → toppings assembly process, then shoveling the $18 result into their mouths. At noon on a recent weekday, Steve Ells, who founded Chipotle Mexican Grill and is therefore among the people directly responsible for the dominance of this fast-casual format, joins the masses for lunch. Looking boyish at 58,

Ells at his next restaurant, Kernel. Photo: Dina Litovsky This article was featured in One Great Story , New York ’s reading recommendation newsletter. Sign up here to get it nightly. At Hudson Eats, an upscale food court in lower Manhattan, the bankers and media workers descending from nearby office towers can find anything they dream of for lunch — so long as they dream in bowl form. There are build-your-own bento bowls at Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar, build-your-own bone-broth rice bowls at Springbone Kitchen, build-your-own burrito bowls at Dos Toros, build-your-own Middle Eastern bowls at Naya,

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