ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen
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| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Restaurants |
| Founded | September 15, 2011 in Washington, DC |
| Founder |
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| Defunct | March 17, 2017 |
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Number of locations
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15 (July 2016) |
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Area served
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California, Illinois, Maryland, and Washington, DC |
| Parent | Chipotle Mexican Grill |
| Website | shophousekitchen |
ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen, or simply ShopHouse, was an American restaurant chain specializing in Southeast Asian cuisine. Its name derived from the shophouse, a common building type in urban Southeast Asia. The first ShopHouse opened in September 2011 in Washington, D.C. As of April 2016[update], there were a total of fourteen ShopHouse locations, in California, Chicago, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. ShopHouse was owned and operated by Chipotle Mexican Grill, and used a similar serving format.
Like Chipotle, ShopHouse restaurants were company-owned, rather than franchised. Its competitors included Panda Express, P. F. Chang's, Pick Up Stix, and to a small extent Noodles & Company. On October 25, 2016, founder, Steve Ells, said during an earnings call that the company "decided not to invest further in growing the ShopHouse brand." All ShopHouse locations were closed on March 17, 2017.
The ShopHouse concept was primarily developed by Chipotle's director of concept development Tim Wildin, who was born in Bangkok and spent all of his childhood summers there. Wildin had been working in the marketing department at Chipotle and realized that if he could follow Chipotle’s business model and combine it with his knowledge of traditional Southeast Asian cuisine, he could bring the taste of his homeland to the American masses. Culinary manager Nate Appleman was responsible for developing some recipes and the procedures to produce the final product. Wildin was responsible with the look of the facilities, the locations of the restaurants, and marketing.
The first ShopHouse opened on Connecticut Avenue, in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Opened on September 15, 2011, the location was intended to test consumer response before further expansion. After almost two years, the second ShopHouse, the first on the West Coast, opened in Hollywood on June 17, 2013.
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