On Monday, Chipotle announced it would add a vegan bowl and a vegetarian bowl to the menu. The vegan bowl features sofritas, brown rice, black beans, tomato and corn salsas, and lettuce. The vegetarian bowl has fajita veggies, brown rice, pinto beans, tomato and corn salsas, sour cream, and guacamole.
The bowls are an extension of Chipotle's "Lifestyle Bowls" line, which launched in January and highlights buzzy dieting trends, with the Paleo Salad Bowl, the Keto Salad Bowl, and the Whole30 Salad Bowl. All the bowls are available to purchase online or on the chain's app.
Chipotle has offered vegetarian and vegan options for years, launching its sofritas vegan protein in 2014. However, CEO Brian Niccol said the chain had struggled to make customers aware of menu options.
"Our No. 1-selling meat is chicken," Niccol told Business Insider in January. "When you ask people 'Did you know we had carnitas, barbacoa, or sofritas?' a lot of people are like, what is that?"
With the early success of the Lifestyle Bowls, Niccol told Business Insider that the chain was looking for other items that could be repackaged and reintroduced to customers.
"As we get ready to move into Lent or certain seasons where vegetarian or certain nonmeat opportunities present themselves, nobody even knows we have sofritas," Niccol said. "Frankly, even if they know we do have sofritas, a lot of them don't even know that it is plant-based."
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