Technically he's right. From Freebirds.com The first Freebirds opened in Santa Barbara , California , in 1987. The first Freebirds in Texas opened in College Station in 1990. BUT the site does not list any current Freebirds in Cali.
OKay, after digging into the Cali statement about Freebirds... The first Freebirds was built in Santa Barbara, CA in an area called Isla Vista. The guy who built it, Mark Orfalea, did some marketing research on Texas and sold the rights to college buddy Pierre Dube. The next Freebirds was built across from the Texas A&M campus in College Station and all the other Freebirds were also built in Texas. The Freebirds in Cali is still there, but is of a significantly different style (I'd call it a prototype).
damn, a california import. perfected in college station? am i going insane? please tell me they don't put rice in their burritos at freebirds. i always complain about not being able to get good tex-mex here but wow. sad state of affairs in the great state of texas
They put whatever you want in the burrito. They follow you down their line of meats and accessories (for lack of a better term) and you indicate what you do or don't want. But I think most people get rice in their burrito (I know I do).
You are wrong. This is courtesy of my brother who is arguing with some friends, but I agree with his every point: chipotle > freebirds and let me tell you why. i have had spirited debate on this topic: 1) The meat: really the most important part of the burrito. as far as quantity, the two competitors are evenly matched, both not giving you enough of the good stuff. I find the chipotle chicken to be significantly better marinated, but the steak is slightly better at freebirds. The chicken comparison is like comparing me in boggle to Erica in boggle. There's really no contest. The steak comparison is more like me vs. becky in smash. I usually win, but it's not a given. Chipotle also has barbacoa and some pork concoction they call carnitas which are both quite delicious. ADVANTAGE: CHIPOTLE 2) The tortilla: Chipotle's tortilla is softer and more pliable than the Freebirds tortillas I have had, but Freebirds does have the wide variety of choices - the spinach one is a personal fave both because it is green and it gives the impression that you are eating healthy when you really aren't. Both of these burritos contain over 1,000 calories. And I've eaten two before. Eek. ADVANTAGE: Even. 3) The rice: Freebirds uses what you might call "Spanish Rice." It's red, sticks together, and is well seasoned. Chipotle uses what's called Basmati Rice - a long grained Indian rice seasoned with lime, salt, and cilantro. This is where I have the most passion. Now, Basmati rice by itself is pretty delicious; it doesn't stick together like the Spanish rice, so you can really enjoy each morsel individually. And they add such amazing flavor to it; it's really hard to beat. The Freebirds rice is sort of your run of the mill i-guess-i'll-eat-that-with-my-fajita-platter-from-Chili's type of rice. In other words, blah. The chipotle rice takes the freebirds rice, eats it, poops it out, eats it again, and poops it out again. That's how much better it is. I can't overstate this. ADVANTAGE: CHIPOTLE BY A MILE 4) The beans: Both chains offer pinto beans and black beans. Freebirds also offers refried beans which I never get anyway. As far as I know, they taste about the same. Sorry beans, I know you're magical, but nobody really cares about you. ADVANTAGE: Even 5) The fixin's: Chipotle offers romaine lettuce, cheese, sour cream, and guacamole. Freebirds offers lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, pico de gallo, onions, sour cream, guac, and maybe a few other items. Freebirds offers more selection certainly, but the quality of the romaine lettuce (way better than that iceberg garbage) and the cheese (I'm not really sure what kind it is, but it is scrumdiddlyumptions) at Chipotle would seem to give it the slightest advantage. Until you realize that guacamole costs something ridiculous like $1.50. Outrageous. ADVANTAGE: Even 6) The salsas and sauce: Freebirds, as far as I can remember, offers 3 sauces. One is straight up hot sauce, one is this BBQ hot sauce, and I forget what the other one is. Chipotle offers what it calls 4 salsas, but one is really just pico de gallo, and one is corn with some pieces of pepper in it. The other two are ridiculously hot so I rarely get them. The Freebirds BBQ hot sauce is quite excellent, but it does tend to overpower any flavor they've happened to use with the other ingredients. The Chipotle salsas, on the other hand, do an excellent job of complementing the other tastes. It's like the Kobe vs. Steve Nash argument. Sure Kobe's a more talented player, but who helps his team more? ADVANTAGE: Even 7) The ambience: Chipotle looks like a nice warehouse with random wood and steel art strewn about. I think they were going for an industrial motif or something. There's sheet metal on the walls, exposed pipes, etc. It's kind of neat. I think it has neat music too. Freebirds exudes the college-y atmosphere with a sort of we-don't-care-what-you-think-we're-going-to-keep-doing-drugs attitude. It's all the in eye of the beholder. Advantage: who cares? 8) The value: They cost about the same. Although you can get those gimongous ones that no one in their right mind would ever eat at Freebirds for a ridiculous price. Advantage: Even 9) Miscellany: Chipotle has free burritos on Tax Day, Valentine's, February 29th, and for other seemingly random occasions during the year. As far as I know, Freebirds never offers free burritos. Also, Chipotle is a green company, using recycled materials to make their burrito bowls and napkins. Freebirds kills bunnies for fun and likes to dump toxic waste into wildlife preserves. Advantage: Chipotle (even without the made up stuff) And the final decision goes to Chipotle. It's 3-0 with Chipotle utterly massacring Freebirds in the rice category. I always get extra rice with my Chipotle burrito. It's usually tearing in several places by the time I get it. "Chicken Burrito with extra rice, black beans, lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, corn, hold the sour cream." A veritable explosion of complementary flavors.
All of your other points were pretty much irrelevant as far as the taste of the burrito, so I'll discuss the non-fluff. 1) The meat. Kudos for recognizing that this is the most important. If I'm paying $7 for a sammich, it darn well better have some beef in it - preferably a lot of beef! The steak sizzling on the grill as you walk into FB's says it all - you want the beef. Chicken is irrelevant, and FB's hot sizzling fajita beef >>>>> Chipotle's non-descript cow parts. 2) The rice. Personally, I prefer FB's flavored rice, whereas you prefer the basmati indian rice. Call it a draw? 3) Ingredients. Freedom of choice > all. Another big win for FreeBirds. I need to go and get me some soon.
Freebirds offers, Bad Ass BBQ Sauce Mild Tomatillo Hot Tomatillo Death Habanero Fresh Lime Juice Salsa Ranch
Super monster is for the people who havent ate all day. I had it. Boy did it kick my ass for the most part but i finished that motherfer down at the end.
