Chipotle's newest restaurant shows how far the chain is straying from its roots

• Chipotle just announced a new restaurant design, the Chipotlane Digital Kitchen.
• The new format will open in Ohio later in December.

Chipotle will open its first Chipotlane Digital Kitchen restaurant in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio in December 2021, the chain just announced.

The new restaurant format will only serve customers through digital orders. Customers place orders online or through the Chipotle app, then pick them up via a walk-up window or a Chipotlane, Chipotle's version of a drive-thru.

The digital kitchen format is a sign that Chipotle is continuing to embrace the dominance of drive-thrus and digital orders over the fast casual chain's original model, where customers ordered inside and watched workers construct their burrito bowls right in front of them.

Digital sales made up nearly half of all Chipotle orders in the third quarter, at 42.8% of sales for $840.4 million. They were up 8.6% over the same period in 2020, which was the year digital orders really grew thanks in part to the COVID-19 pandemic. With continued investment, Chipotle expects them to continue growing. Restaurants that include a Chipotlane have about 15% higher sales than restaurants opened in the same period without the drive-thru lane, Chipotle said in a statement. Of the 41 new Chipotles that opened in Q3 2021, 36 of them have Chipotlanes.

"Our portfolio of approximately 300 Chipotlanes perform with the highest margins across the board, so we continue to evolve our restaurant design with formats such as the Chipotlane Digital Kitchen to best suit our growing digital business," Chief Development Officer Tabassum Zalotrawala said in a statement.

Chipotlanes also offer higher margins than a traditional Chipotle make-line and dining room, CFO Jack Hartung said in a third-quarter earnings call, because they typically have higher sales and operate more efficiently than the traditional format. The new digital kitchen will benefit from these same factors, with an even smaller footprint than a traditional Chipotlane, and no dining room that requires staffing to stay clean and usable for customers.

The new format from Chipotle is in line with restaurant designs coming from competing brands, centering minimal design with technology integration and multiple ways for customers to access their orders.

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