Toms River’s Getting A “Chipotlane”
A new Chipotle is being built on the corner of Route 37 and Washington Street in Toms River. The big news is it will have a Drive Thru!
The 2300 square foot restaurant will have 65 seats in the traditional dining room. However, the drive-thru, a concept Chipotle has dubbed the “Chipotlane, is the first of its kind for our area. The area of Route 37 where the restaurant is being built has been vacant since a former gas station was cleared from the site back in 2006. There had been talk of a Dunkin Donuts-Baskin Robbins hybrid store going in that location. Meanwhile, there is a recently remodeled Dunkin Donuts-Baskin Robbins store farther west on Route 37 now, near the Manchester border.
A drive-thru seems like a real no-brainer for Chipotle.
As we all know, the food is cooked fresh and put together in a fast assembly line fashion. This seemingly would bode well for a drive-thru operation. After all, the main objective is to keep your butt in the car and get out quickly!
The only problem that I see potentially happening is a log jam due to order. Think about it, when you go to most fast food places, you have tons of options, but very few people are creating their orders from scratch. You might want no pickles on your burger, extra cheese, etc. However, every single person isn’t sitting at the drive-thru menu mic building their unique dish like at Chipotle. So what gives???
Well, the answer is it’s a pickup window for App Orders!!!
Drive Thru success has been found around the country and in our own backyard.
Despite my concerns, there are successful Chipotle Drive Thru “Chipotlanes” around the country. Moreover, at least one that I know of is in New Jersey, in Edison.
In fact, locally one of Chipotle’s main competitors, Bubbakoos Burritos has had a successful drive-thru restaurant on Route 9 in Bayville for a number of years now, since taking over the old Burger King location there. They just kept the BK Drive Thru and made it a…a…”Bubbakar Lane”?? See it’s not that easy to come up with catchy phrases!
The new Chipotle and Chipotlane should be ready to roll your burrito later this year. Find out more about Chipotle at https://www.chipotle.com/
