Chipotle restaurant coming to Columbia County as part of a push for national expansion
A new location for the Tex-Mex restaurant chain Chipotle Mexican Grill appears headed for Columbia County.
The proposed 2,400-square-foot business will occupy part of an outparcel in front of the Mullins Colony shopping center in Evans, according to construction plans filed with CBI General Contractors in Cumming, Georgia.
Plans also refer to the structure as an “endcap” Chipotle, suggesting that it will sit at a far end of a two- or three-unit commercial strip. Drawings show the fast-casual restaurant facing Washington Road, and it will have a drive-thru window.
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Augusta got its first and currently only Chipotle in 2018 at Augusta Exchange, 229 Robert C. Daniel Jr. Parkway. The only other Chipotle in the Augusta area is at 362 E. Martintown Rd. in North Augusta. A location that opened in Aiken in 2016 closed in 2018. Others closest to Augusta are in Athens and in Columbia, S.C.
Chipotle opened its first restaurant in 1993 in Denver. It has since grown to more than 3,300 locations in the continental United States, including nearly 100 in Georgia. All locations are corporate-owned, and the company offers no franchises.
In July, The Wall Street Journal reported that Chipotle plans to open 800 new locations in the next several years.
Chipotle prepares made-to-order dishes in front of the customers, featuring tacos, quesadillas, bowls, salads and outsized Mission burritos filled with rice and other ingredients.
Construction bids to assist the restaurant’s interior buildout are due Jan. 19.
This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Plan reveals proposed new Chipotle restaurant in Columbia County
