Soon-to-be-reknowned Columbia College art student Katie Skuba (my niece) was making her way through downtown Chicago this past Tuesday when she and a friend spotted a line of shiny happy people emanating from the Chipotle restaurant. So Katie & Friend did what any clear-thinking creative types would do when faced with a potentially volatile situation populated with bizarre, potentially dangerous, extraterrestrial and/or psychotic people wrapped in aluminum: they joined right in. Their well-preserved metallic new friends explained that Chipotle was giving free burritos (boo-ritos, to be precise) to anyone who reached the register wrapped in Chipotle’s outerware of choice: aluminum foil. Katie held the place in line (naturally) while her pal sped (no pun intended) off to Walgreen’s to take advantage of another great sale: 2 rolls of aluminum foil for $1.00. (Did I mention it was Halloween? Obviously a great day for bargains in downtown Chicago.) The two art students fashioned amazing outfits with epaulettes, monacles, hoop skirts, vintage foil jewelry, and faux fur toupees. (Descriptions come from an unbiased and reliable source: Katie’s mother and my sister, Lauren Skuba.)

Do a search for “boo-rito” on Flickr or Google images and you’ll find plenty of photos of Chipotle customers and employees having a lot of crinkly fun while foiling the marketing efforts of their fresh-mex competitors. Lest you lack the mettle to try giving away some food for the fun of it, consider this, as reported by the Rocky Mountain News:

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc.’s net income more than doubled in the third quarter, and revenue rose 28.3 percent to $211.3 million.

The Denver-based burrito chain also reported an 11.3 percent increase in same-store sales in the quarter ended Sept. 30, mainly due to an increase in the number of transactions.

Labor costs held steady at 28.2 percent of sales, a fact the company largely attributes to a retention and promotion plan that helps Chipotle groom future managers and has reduced turnover, said President and Chief Operating Officer Monty Moran in a conference call with analysts.

“We’re seeing an increase in the numbers of hourly crew members that are being promoted, and expect this trend will continue,” Moran said…

Chipotle has opened 59 new restaurants since the beginning of the year, including 30 in the third quarter, and expects to have opened between 80 and 90 by year’s end…

“Expansion of brand equity and new store openings should continue to fuel growth,” she said…

The company expects to report 2006 same-store sales growth in the low double digits.

While other fast-casual concepts are battling flat industry sales and stagnant same-store sales, Chipotle prompts the question: Which comes first, the success or the fun?

No one needs to ask, however, why the boo-rito is smiling.  SPK