Chipotle is getting in the holiday spirit! The fast-food chain recently announced that from Monday, December 3, through Friday, December 7, the windows of its Columbus Circle restaurant (located at 235 West 56th Street) in New York City will be adorned with five unique window displays. Each display, which will change daily, will utilize only the 51 fresh ingredients found on Chipotle’s menu.
Themes for the daily displays include a winter wonderland scene and holiday carolers, among others, and each of the vignettes will be created entirely from the real ingredients used in Chipotle restaurants by food sculptors Jim Victor and Marie Pelton. That means passersby can expect to see scenes created using food items such as corn, cheese, rice, peppers, salsa, avocado and more. In fact, in one display, a lettuce leaf tree was topped with a holiday onion angel.
“In the spirit of full transparency, we’re putting our real food front and center through these festive holiday window displays that will come to life using only our 51 real ingredients,” said Chris Brandt, chief marketing officer at Chipotle, via a press release. “We hope the window display gets everyone in the holiday spirit while also showcasing Chipotle’s longstanding commitment to preparing fresh food using real ingredients.”
To complete the quintet of displays, Today Food reports Chipotle sourced about 80 heads of romaine lettuce, a crate each of lemons, limes, tomatillos, tomatoes, more than 100 tortillas, large containers of fresh spices, 10 pounds of salt and pepper and moderate amounts of jalapeños, poblanos, onions, garlic, gypsum, avocado, cheese, corn, juniper berries, tomato paste and pinto beans.
When the display is dismantled each day, the leftover food will be composted and donated to local farms.
The emphasis on the chain’s fresh ingredients comes shortly after Chipotle faced increased scrutiny following a series of high-profile health scares involving the Colorado-Based company. In July, more than 700 customers fell ill after eating contaminated food, and dozens were sickened by E. coli after an outbreak of the food-borne illness was traced back to the chain in several states in 2016.
