Halloween Boo-Ritos At Chipotle

After a certain age, it gets harder and harder to find an excuse to dress up for Halloween. Thankfully, Chipotle has once again provided an excuse with its annual Boo-rito day.

"Boo-rito," of course, is a frightening alteration of "burrito" for Halloween. Chipotle knows the lengths people will go to for free food, and decided to get some publicity and have some fun while giving people the opportunity to get some of their delicious food for free. Their website says "Come in on Halloween, Wednesday, October 31st, from 5pm to Close, dressed like a Chipotle burrito, taco, bowl or salad, and we'll complete your costume with a FREE BURRITO.

Now, I'm personally not a fan of their burritos. The one time I tried one, I thought it had way too much rice. One of the great strengths of Chipotle is the high degree of control you have over how they make your food, so I could certainly try a burrito with less rice or none at all, and see how I liked it. However, my next time back I tried their soft tacos, which I've since become addicted to. Feeling certain that they'd let me substitute soft tacos for a burrito as a costume reward, I began the search for a decent costume.

I was at work the day of Halloween when I remembered that today was Boo-rito day, so my costume options were pretty much limited to what I could make on the spot with everyday items. (Help, MacGyver!) I knew the costume everyone likes to fall back on was the foil-wrapped burrito. Simply cover yourself head to toe in foil, and voila, you're a burrito. Not wanting to completely cover themselves, a lot of people have decided to test how much foil is actually required to pass for a burrito, and one person found that Chipotle accepted a foil-covered thumb as a mini-burrito. I didn't want to cheat that much, and as it turned out, there wasn't a square inch of foil to be found in the office kitchen anyway.

I knew that to pull this off, I had to look beyond the burrito. Keeping in mind that they also accept tacos, bowls, and salads, I continued my search for accoutrements. In the end, I decided to go as a salad. I happened to be wearing a green shirt that I decided could be lettuce, so I just taped on a crouton, a packet of grated Parmesan cheese, and a packet of crushed red pepper. Maybe a tad low-tech and low-budget, but I thought it would get the job done.

It was actually a bigger hit than I expected. I think that because it was something other than foil, it caught the staff's attention, and a couple of them laughed. There was no question as to whether it qualified me for free food. Ready for a twist? I got a burrito after all. I asked them to take it easy on the rice, and it was pretty good! The soft tacos are still my favorite though. Regardless, Chipotle did their part to make yet another Halloween more enjoyable for all.