Chipotle coming?

This year has proven itself a growing year for Lynchburg with the opening of many local restaurants including Bloop, Yogurt Yeti and Cookout — but it does not stop there.

For years, Lynchburg residents have been pushing for Chipotle Mexican Grill to open its doors in their community, according to a survey by Michael Gumprecht, originator of the “Get Chipotle in Lynchburg” petition.

According to Chipotle representatives, they are now planning to open one of their self-proclaimed “gourmet burrito” restaurants in Lynchburg.

“I can let you know that it’s true: we do plan to open up in Lynchburg soon,” Chipotle Customer Service Director James Davis said. “If all goes according to plan, the location will have its grand opening near the beginning of June.”

Although the location for the new Chipotle has yet to be verified by the Chipotle Corporation, President of Prototype Advertising and Co-owner of Bloop Josh Oppenheimer has verified that the new construction in Lynchburg on Wards Rd. will be home to two new “Liberty-friendly” establishments.

The first of which will be another centrally-located Bloop, a frozen yogurt establishment.

“At Prototype what we do is create brands,” Co-owner of Bloop and Prototype’s Senior Art Director Daryl Calfee said. “With Bloop, we decided that if we were going to do it, we were going to do it better.”

“I was sitting at home reading when it came to me,” Calfee said. “Mark 9:41 talks about giving a cup of water in my name, that is when we came up with the cup for a cup to donate to charity.”

Currently, there are five Bloop locations open or under construction.

Oppenheimer was also able to confirm the opening of a brand new restaurant, Arozto.

“Arozto means fire-roasted in Italian,” Oppenheimer said. “This is going to be fire-roasted pizza, Chipotle style. It will be custom-made and similar to Waterstone, another local restaurant located in downtown Lynchburg.

The similarity to its neighbor, Waterstone, is not a coincidence according to Oppenheimer. The new establishment is co-owned by the owner of the upscale pizza restaurant, Steve Perry Restaurants.

“We at Prototype had a relationship with Steve Perry,” Calfee said. “Mr. Perry is very successful at what he does, and we have had a chance at Prototype to work with him on Waterstone, but also with Shoemakers. We saw the opportunity to collaborate and took advantage of that.”

According to Oppenheimer, both Arozto and Bloop are planning on accepting Liberty University’s Flames Cash.