Chipotle History: Everything Investors Need to Know

Founded in 1993, Chipotle (NYSE: CMG) created the fast casual restaurant category. While the company has had tremendous growth serving customers great-tasting burritos made specifically to order, it's stumbled lately with food safety concerns due to E. Coli and norovirus, and even had a rodent incident in a store.

I'll look back at the history of Chipotle starting from its first restaurant, its partnership with McDonald's, its IPO and growth phase, and how it's handled its latest issues. This history gives investors some perspective on this once Wall Street darling that is now is dealing with the biggest challenge in its history, fixing its reputation.

Steve Ells, art history major, and a classically trained chef couldn't open the fine-dining restaurant he wanted to because he lacked the necessary funds. So he borrowed $85,000 from his father and opened his first restaurant in Denver that was influenced by his visit to a Mexican taqueria. Ells was impressed by the efficiency of the restaurant and the speed at which the line moved. He estimated the restaurant's financials on a napkin and decided this restaurant could be the "cash cow" he needed to fund the restaurant he really wanted to open.

Source: Fool.com