Totally Chipotle®

Steve Albini - Engineer, Musician, Foodie.

March 19th 2007 Posted in chipotle, Musicians, Party Sauce

AS MANY PEOPLE ALREADY KNOW, STEVE ALBINI is an engineer & musician. Although it’s hard to keep up with his credits, he worked on Nirvana’s In Utero, and has also worked with Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. Interestingly, as he’ll tell you, he claims NOT to be a producer. “When you come to record here,” he once told me, “I assume you already know what you want musically. I’m not going to tell you to change a lyric or verse, or move a bridge, or anything like that.” He makes it clear his job is to twist knobs, and make each instrument sound as good as he’s able. And he’s very able.

WHAT MOST FOLKS may NOT know about Steve: He’s a serious foodie. During my last visit there, he pointed out he that the top shows on his TIVO were food & cooking shows. And (for the first go-round, anyway), he was a serious Totally Chipotle® fan (Party Sauce).

As the new-look Party Sauce is about ready, I’ll be running some over to Electrical (his great recording studio), say hello to Steve, catch up a bit, and maybe even have something more to write about him soon? Stay tuned…

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Chipotle® Mexican Grill = Hooters® Without Girls?

March 04th 2007 Posted in chipotle, chipotle mexican grill

Does this restaurant have even ONE item featuring chipotle peppers? Although it’s been awhile since I’ve been, I couldn’t find them anywhere on my last visit.

In a way, their chain is like Olive Garden or Red Lobster; if you live out in the boondocks, fair enough - that’s usually the closest thing there is to fine dining or ethnic food; but if you live in a big city like Chicago (and I do), there are plenty of great, authentic places to visit, including killer Mexican food joints. Although I think Chipotle’s food is decent enough, being surrounded by plenty of great, family-owned spots is the reason I don’t hit their restaurants too often.

Beyond all that - and if it is indeed the case that they don’t use chipotle anywhere on their menu - you’d think there should be some sort of basic guidelines about being held accountable for truth in advertising (not to mention being issued a trademark on the name/word). I’m the kind of person who loves it if/when I go somewhere called something like “Rocky” or “JJs,” and there’s actually a person with that name who actually owns (or did own) the place. Conversely, imagine a place called “Tequila’s” or “Basil” or “Thyme” that didn’t actually serve those things; for that matter, wouldn’t it be wacky if a place called “Hooters” had no women working there?

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