menu

Menu

close

Close

Chipotle’s Cultivate Festival

Last weekend Andrew I went to Dallas for Chipotle’s Cultivate Festival. My nice friends at Annie’s Homegrown provided me with two VIP passes to attend the event.  It was a day of delish food, new music and creative ideas.

Chipotle Cultivate
After driving four hours to get to Dallas, we were ready to eat some food!  If you’ve followed my instagram for at least a week you know my love for Chipotle. I love how Chipotle is making the fast food experience something healthy and delicious. 

At the festival, Chipotle offered a bunch of new food.  The choices included: pork belly or barbacoa gorditas, chicken or tofu sofritas tacos, grilled steak kale salad, and meatball or tofu rice bowl. 

Shophouse Kitchen is a new concept from Chipotle.  Or at least new to me.  Right now they have stores in California, Washington D.C and Maryland.  Has anyone been to one of these restaurants?  Looked good.  Next time I’m in California I’ll have to stop by one.

Chipotle Cultivate-28Chipotle Cultivate-2Chipotle Cultivate-26Chipotle Cultivate-27
So many delicious things to choose from.  Andrew ended up going with the pork belly gordita.  I stole a bite.  I wasn’t too crazy about the flat bread, but the pineapple and other toppings were definitely tasty.

Chipotle Cultivate-3
I got the kale salad with grilled steak.  The kale I buy at the grocery store is pretty tough, which makes it hard for me to enjoy unless it’s baked or sauteed.  The kale in this salad was baby kale and was so tender and delicious.  Plus, the corn salsa and dressing on the salad was to die for.  The tortilla chips on the top didn’t hurt either.  And I’m not much of a steak eater, but I did like this steak.  I hope this salad makes it into Chipotle stores!

Chipotle Cultivate-13
The rest of the afternoon we spent walking through the food-focused interactive displays.  My favorite display of the day compared processed fast food to Chipotle’s fresh, fast food.  The ingredients from both were displayed for a really powerful visual. 

Chipotle Cultivate-37Chipotle Cultivate-24
There was also a display on GMOs.  There is still so much we need to learn about GMOs.

Chipotle Cultivate-17
The only product Chipotle currently has that contains GMO’s is their corn tortilla.  About 90% of the corn produced in the United States contains GMOs, so it’s difficult to make non-GMO corn tortillas.

Chipotle Cultivate-16
At the end of the display you used a ping pong ball to cast you vote on your position on GMOs.  The balls got sucked up through a vacuum and landed in the category you voted for.  I’m most concerned with “inconclusive data on GMO safety”. 

Chipotle Cultivate-36
Then we visited a couple more displays…

Chipotle Cultivate-38

Chipotle Cultivate-39
After that we headed to the VIP area for some IZZE cocktails!  I got the IZZE Madres, which had IZZE Sparkling Clementine, Vodka and Cranberry Juice.  Andrew went with the IZZE Shandy, made with IZZE Sparkling Clementine, Vodka and a lime wedge garnish.  I stole Andrew’s lime wedge for this picture.

Chipotle Cultivate-6
About 30 minutes later I came across a mango mojito popsicle from Pop Star Handcrafted Popsicles.  It was so good.  I don’t really like fresh mint so I was worried the mojito flavor was going to be overwhelming for me, but it was a perfect balance.

Chipotle Cultivate-15
We checked out some of the goodies in the tent before heading home for the day.  There were a bunch of samples including cookies from Wackym’s Kitchen, a variety of Annie’s products, White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Granola from Sweet Nana’a Granola, and Bare Fruit Chips.

Chipotle Cultivate-4 Chipotle Cultivate-10 Chipotle Cultivate-9 Chipotle Cultivate-8
It was such a fun day.  Thank you Annie’s for making this possible for me! I now love Chipotle even more, which I didn’t think was a thing that could happen.

17 comments

  1. I love that a company IS focusing and trying to create healthy gmo-free fast food!

  2. you guys were in Dallas? I had no idea about this event now im regretting :(

    • It was a whirlwind of a trip! We were in Dallas for like 14 hours lol! But I totally should have thought to mention the event to YOU!!!!!:(

  3. This looks so awesome and fun (and the weather looks heavenly unlike freezing london haha)

  4. This looks awesome! Love the comparison of what’s in a burger vs what’s in a burrito bowl… now I have to ask: are they bringing the kale salad/gordita/etc. to all Chipotle stores? And NOOOO why isn’t there a ShopHouse in SF yet??

    • Hmm I’m not sure…I never got a clear answer! I bet SF will get a ShopHouse soon. California gets all the cool things;) So fun you’re moving there!!!

  5. How fun! I want like 10,000 of your husband’s cocktails, and it’s only 10am. (And OMG, I just realized how inappropriate that sounds! I meant 10,000 of the IZZE Shandys! *face palm*). I have 13 month old that doesn’t sleep. Don’t judge ;)

  6. This looks like heaven as far as food is concerned! ;)

  7. Wow, that looks like such a fun event. I wish I had gone! Glad you had fun :) .. and I can totally see Chipotle doing a tofu option. Surprised they don’t!

  8. So jealous! If I still lived in Dallas I would have definitely tried to attend!

  9. Wow, loved the illustrations of fresh food vs. processed food. They made the concept very eye-opening.

  10. OMG I want to try Shophouse so bad. This event looks like so much fun!!!!! We just did a sort of case study on Chipotle in Marketing class so this is totally relevant…what an awesome company doing awesome things. Ugh the GMO talk makes me wish I was in school for nutrition rather than business…studying that would be so much more interesting!!!

  11. What a fun event! And I just adore your photography.

Leave a Reply to joelle (on a pink typewriter) Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *