FORTUNE — As a kid, I watched Julia Child and Graham Kerr, the Galloping Gourmet, on television while my friends were watching cartoons. In grade school I learned how to make hollandaise from my mom, and during high school in Boulder I started throwing dinner parties and collecting cookbooks. After college I went to the Culinary Institute of America [in Hyde Park, N.Y.] and then to San Francisco to work at Stars restaurant. I aspired to have my own restaurant, but quickly realized I didn't know the economics of full-scale restaurants.
One day, while sitting in a taqueria called Zona Rosa close to my house, I watched how the line crew took care of people in very short order. I took out a napkin and jotted down what I thought the average check was and how many people were going through the line, and I timed it. I thought, Wow, this thing makes a lot of money — it could be a little cash cow that could fund my real restaurant. My dad gave me $85,000 — part loan, part equity. I packed up within a couple of weeks and drove back to Colorado. It was the summer of 1992. The first Chipotle opened in Denver on July 13, 1993.
The tipping point came in October, when the restaurant reviewer from the Rocky Mountain News gave Chipotle (CMG) an A rating and described how we made the marinade to grill the chicken, how we used only the ripest of avocados — all the little details.
After that people came from all over Denver, and down from Vail and Aspen. Suddenly the line was out the door and down the block.
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