43 Chipotles Shut Down After E. Coli Outbreak, But I'm Still Willing to Risk It

Chipotle, my favorite restaurant, has voluntarily shuttered 43 of its locations in Washington and Oregon this week amidst news of an E. coli outbreak that’s made at least 22 of my spiritual brothers and sisters sick. The New York Times reports the “infection affected people who ate at [my favorite restaurant] between Oct. 14 and 23.”

“There have been links made to six restaurants in the Seattle and Portland areas,” said Chris Arnold, the communications director for Chipotle, in an emailed statement on Monday. “We have closed 43 restaurants in those markets out of an abundance of caution.”

A representative from the Washington State Department of Health said, “We believe that a food item is probably the cause of these infections but we don’t know at this time what food item that is.” Below is a list of all of my favorite restaurant’s menu items, ranked in order from the item I hope is the cause of the outbreak to the item I hope is not:

Steak
Romaine lettuce
Sofritas
Barbacoa
Carnitas
Tortillas
Chips
Fajita veggies
Sour cream
Chicken
Cilantro-lime white rice
Black beans
Tomatillo red-chili salsa
Tomatillo green-chili salsa
Guacamole
Fresh tomato salsa
Roasted chili-corn salsa
Cheese
Cilantro-lime brown rice
Pinto beans

As a resident of a state unaffected by the outbreak, for lunch I’ll be ordering a veggie burrito bowl with brown rice, pinto beans, guacamole (it’s free if you order a veggie bowl), all the salsas, and cheese, to go please, thank you, have a good one.