Back in July, Chipotle announced that they had signed an agreement with Alshaya Group to open locations in the Middle East next year. The initial plan is for two locations each in Dubai and Kuwait.
According to a source of mine, Chipotle’s first location in Kuwait will be at The Avenues in place of where Blaze Pizza was located, near Gait and VOX Cinema.
All the Blaze Pizza locations in Kuwait recently closed down and I’m assuming permanently. Blaze, I believe, was Alshaya’s third attempt with pizza, the first two being 400 Gradi and Spontini (I loved Spontini) both of which also closed down.
I reached out to Alshaya for confirmation regarding Chipotles first store and they responded stating they would not comment on speculation, but that as they’ve previously mentioned, Chipotle is set to open in Kuwait in 2024.
10 replies on “Chipotle’s First Location in Kuwait”
Pizza express is also AlShaya’s is it not?
Yeah it they didn’t close down. I meant third pizza place that failed
Oh shucks.. i loved Blaze pizza.. wonder why no one else did?
A lot of people loved it, but maybe not enough to make financial sense
Spotini was the best! It’s actually a pretty big deal in Milan, Italy.
All good things ended with the pandemic.
400 Gradi had the best chili pizza, and I only discovered it when they sold it at Dean & Deluca during the pandemic. Regardless, I’m interested in what will be featured on Chipotle Kuwait’s menu.
Pizza Express survived because it was ahead of their time. A better tastier alternative to Pizza Hut. Blaze is a fad that had its short lived marketing success thats starting to fail. 50% of Al Shaya companies succeed or fail & covid exposed that. Chipotle is a good signing.
Pizza is a tricky one. There are so many more affordable options around Kuwait. Personally, the only time I eat pizza is when I order it at home. I rarely go out to a pizza-focused restaurant.
One alshaya employee told me chipotle will open on the 16th of jan where blaze was. I dont know how that would be possible but I wouldnt put it past alshaya.
cant wait…