WASHINGTON — Chipotle Mexican Grill told investors in October it would no longer invest in expanding its experiment with ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen, its build-your-own Asian fare restaurants.
Now comes news that the handful that are open will all be shuttered next week.
Restaurant News cites a company spokesman as saying it has reached a deal to get out of its leases, closing the 15 ShopHouse locations effective March 17.
The first ShopHouse location in the nation opened in Dupont Circle in 2011. It has other locations in Penn Quarter, Georgetown and at Union Station, and a handful of locations in Chicago and Southern California.
Chipotle wrote down virtually all of the value of the ShopHouse chain in the third quarter of 2016.
“The company has decided not to invest further in developing and growing the ShopHouse brand and will pursue strategic alternatives,” it said in an Oct. 26 statement.
Chipotle continues to experiment with other fast-casual concepts.
A pizza chain called Pizzeria Locale has seven locations now. It is also rolling out a chain of fast-casual hamburger restaurants called Tasty Made.
