Restaurants vie for local business

Sophomore Joe Michelini said he decided to eat at Kirkwood Avenue's La Bamba Mexican restaurant because he wanted to know if they really had "burritos as big as (his) head."\n"It wasn't quite that big, but it was pretty big -- bigger than my belly," said his friend, sophomore Chelsey Wininger. "I'm stuffed."\nAs Kirkwood's Mexican restaurants ready themselves for another school year catering to Bloomington's annual fall invasion, students will once again meander down the street looking for that perfect burrito. Only this time around, Chipotle Mexican Grill is the next-door neighbor and rival in town.\nEmployees of La Bamba said their restaurant's numbers appear the same as they did before Chipotle's opening in April. The summer was dead as always, they said.\n"The only time Chipotle ever had an effect on us was that day they gave away free burritos," said La Bamba delivery girl junior Christine Francois, recounting Chipotle's fundraiser for the IU Student Foundation in April. "Ever since that day, it's been business as usual."\nBefore Chipotle's arrival, Tacos Don Chuy opened its doors at Kirkwood's Dunkirk Square in 2003. In order to vie with La Bamba's for the late-night bar crowd, it remains open until 4:30 a.m. most nights. (La Bamba's closes at 3 a.m.) Junior Alex Yoder explained his reasoning for picking Don Chuy's for lunch.\n"Actually, I ate at Chipotle's yesterday -- it's just a ton of food for the price," he said. "I come to Don Chuy's for the 99-cent 'Taco Tuesdays.' La Bamba's is just bad, and I've never been to Laughing Planet."\nDon Chuy's cashier and IU student Trinity Villanueva said many people come to the restaurant for its authentic Mexican food.\n"Chipotle is Americanized," Villanueva said. "It's just another Taco Bell."\nMost of Kirkwood's burrito-boasting eateries describe their menus as serving "authentic Mexican food" -- all but Laughing Planet Café, which dishes up "California-style" burritos.\n"It's kind of a mistake to lump us in with the Mexican restaurants," said Laughing Planet manager Sarah Owen. "We make all of our ingredients by hand -- basically we do everything but grow them."\nAs an environmentally-conscious establishment, Laughing Planet buys local and organic produce in the interest of promoting healthy eating and supporting local business, Owen said. She described Planet -- with its patio seating, funky interior and hangout vibe -- as "kind of a new tradition on Kirkwood."\n"We get an eclectic crowd of professors, local businesspeople and any given Bloomingtonian really," Owen said. "We see many faces literally everyday."\nSally Tade is one such customer who enjoys the atmosphere of Laughing Planet as much as she enjoys the food.\n"There's no ambience (at Chipotle)," Tade said. "I mean, it looks like a big metal box. And it's a McDonald's-owned chain, so you don't know what you're getting. Planet has wireless, which is convenient."\nSenior Ulises Dubon has worked both the lunch and dinner shifts at Chipotle since its grand opening a few months ago. Despite the fact Chipotle inherited a corporate reputation from McDonald's, he had nothing but positive things to say about how the business is run.\nPosters adorning the behind-the-counter menu show off the store's very un-McDonald's-like rejection of standard corporate agribusiness. One poster titled "Hippy Chick-en" reads: "We are now serving naturally raised chicken: vegetarian fed and antibiotic free."\n"Our pork is also free range and comes from a farm called Bell & Evans," Dubon said. "Our beef is the last meat where we're trying to get free range, and by the end of October, we should be at that stage."\nWith so many ethnic restaurants in Bloomington and, more specifically, a wealth of Mexican restaurants along Kirkwood, no single business commands the market.\n"Don Chuy's has the best queso and quesadilla, and we like the burritos here at Chipotle," said senior Jon Lamb as he and his girlfriend Crystal Eichhorn enjoyed foods from both restaurants at a Chipotle booth.\n"I'm a business major, so I like to support corporate America, especially McDonald's," he said, half-jokingly. "And she's into liberal arts so she likes to support the local places. We compromise"