Imagine loving something and being used to it being available. Then imagine that’s been taken away from you.
That’s how one Chipotle customer feels about the chain’s famed vinaigrette. The dressing has eluded her of late despite going to multiple stores to track it down.
Los Angeles-based creator Jezabelle (@notjezabelle) went viral with a TikTok that got 301,000 views as of Sunday morning. In it, she shares “I’m breaking up with Chipotle.” She notes that the bowls she orders just aren’t the same without vinaigrette.
No vinaigrette
“Honestly, y’all, I don’t know if I’m ever gonna eat at a Chipotle again,” she begins, then claiming there are “videos going around of workers saying that they’re never out of the Chipotle vinaigrette, that they just don’t want to make it.”
She then confesses, “That does make me upset, because once you have your bowl with the vinaigrette, you can’t have your bowl without it, right?”
She says she has driven to three of four locations in one day just to try and get the vinaigrette with her bowl.
“Every single one that I would go to would tell me that they were out of it,” she says. “I find that very hard to believe that all of you are out of it.”
She told of a recent saga where she went to one location that didn’t have it and went to a second location. There, she happened upon a new worker who said they did indeed have it. Thinking she was finally going to get the hookup, she ordered a bowl—knowing that they were out of cheese, but being OK with that.
Upon getting to the register to pay for the bowl, she learned a different employee ringing her up claimed the store didn’t have vinaigrette after all.
“I would not have gotten the bowl,” she revealed. “I would have had time to drive to another location.”
Instead, she lamented, “Not only did I not get my vinaigrette that I drove to a second location for, but now I also don’t have cheese. So this is great. The bowl was terrible. Unsatisfying.”
In closing, she says she no longer craves Chipotle.
@notjezabelle im breaking up with chipotle
♬ original sound – not jezabelle
But you can make it at home
A number of copycat recipes exist online for people who want to make the vinaigrette at home. Love and Lemons, for instance, provides a recipe using chipotles in adobo sauce, avocado oil, fresh lime juice, honey, garlic, cumin, salt, and pepper.
Some Chipotle experts also claim you can get it in bulk at a store if you arrange it in advance. A correspondent on the subreddit dedicated to the chain, r/Chipotle, remarked, “Just go in [call first and make sure the GM is on site]. Tell them you’re interested in buying x amount of vinaigrette and that you want to know if there’s a way to accommodate that.
“More likely it’ll have to be treated like ordering a catering,” that person added. “Meaning that you will need to make arrangements to come get it at least a day in advance. In order to have extra vinaigrette the GM will need to plan for the prep team to make it.
There’s also the matter of figuring out pricing which can take a bit of time to figure.”
But another respondent took issue with that advice. They wrote, “They can barely make enough portions in the morning to last the day, it’s not like they have a bunch of gallons back there you can buy. I guess you could try to prearrange something but the dressing doesn’t get made in large quantities.”
A variant of the recipe, incorporating oregano, also was revealed in that thread.
What commenters thought
The topic inspired a number of commenters.
One claimed, “It’s kinda true but most of the time it’s not a ‘feel like it’ thing but most stores are just understaffed so nobody can step away to make more vinaigrette.”
Another declared, “I use to prep for chipotle and it literally only takes like 5 mins to make the vinaigrette.”
“Start saying that you used to work at chipotle and you know they have it and just have to make it,” one advised. “Apologize and say you know it’s annoying cause you used to hate making it too but it’s just so good.”
Another commenter assessed, “Doing all this for a tablespoon of oil and vinegar is insane.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to the creator via email and TikTok direct message and to Chipotle via email.
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