9/27/07

Picante Taqueria [#10] defeats Chipotle [#7]

Although Chipotle [review] was not a real threat to win the bracket, its getting upended by Picante Taqueria [review] in Round 1 has to be considered a minor upset. Let's go to the breakdown:


This all boils down to Chipotle's one unpardonable sin, which was using a clunky, overthick, doughy and flavorless flour tortilla for their soft tacos. For a burrito, this might have been fine ... but the rule of thumb in the bracket is that only performance in the round in question counts. Chipotle just did not offer the better experience this time around, even with their structural advantages in the service categories. In fact, the 1-chili margin for Picante somewhat overstates the closeness of this decision.

Thus, Picante Taqueria advances into the second round, where it will have to be at the absolute top of its game to defeat El Taco Veloz.

at

2 comments:

  1. Scott D. Simon10/02/2007 3:46 PM

    If I lived in Chicago, I'd be in that 20-block area where the only worthy selection is Chipotle. I'd rather have other taquerias, but I eat CMG 3-4 times a month. So I'm not a huge fan.

    Still, are you really giving Picante two chiles for service-hospitality when you had to wait 10 minutes just to place an order?

    In any event, what would the tiebreaker have been? Free refills on Coke?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nate Silver10/02/2007 4:29 PM

    Quality: I decided that the thing with the register being broken should result in a reduction in the "efficiency" category rather than in "hospitality" category.

    I don't know; maybe Picante should have gotten zero chilis rather than one for efficiency because they were pretty slow even when the registers were fixed, and this was with no appreciable line. On the other hand, Chipotle should probably have gotten one chili rather than 2 for "Service: hospitality" because of the "those are some nice looking tacos!" incident.

    ReplyDelete