But so far, I've noticed that most of the new Chipotle aspirants seem to come from somewhere out of state. Costa Vida, which is poised to open its first OC store sometime soon in Irvine, next to Strickland's, is also a Utah-based chain like Cafe Rio.
Now Irvine's going to see more entrants in the genre. But this time, it appears they're local. Thatguy542, one of our most prolific tipsters, has noticed that a restaurant called Tortillaz is opening not one but two locations in Irvine.
The first to debut will be at 2222 Michelson in Irvine, at the Michelson Marketplace, the same plaza as The Chippy, Franco's Pasta Cucina and Renzo's A Taste of Peru. The second will be at 2646 Dupont Dr., also in Irvine.
]
From the slick website,
which they seemed to have spent an inordinate amount in designing,
Tortillaz will offer burritoz, tacoz, tortaz and burrito bowlz. The
“z's” are theirs, not mine. And there's a lot more where that came from,
because they also sells “sidez” and “quesadillaz.” The proteins will
include not just carne asada and chicken, but also grilled fish and
shrimp. There will also be a vegetarian option.
It still remains to be seen whether they'll operate with the same
assembly-line model as Chipotle and its copycats, so it may be premature
to categorize them as such; but I would be surprised if they don't. Why
wouldn't they? There's nothing wrong with that.
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Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.