The first Chipotle with a drive-thru in southern Maine is coming later this year.
The location will be at 507 Main St. in Saco and will also be the first Chipotle in York County. It is scheduled to open by the end of the year, company spokesperson Sally Evans said Friday.
The restaurant will feature a “Chipotlane,” which allows patrons to place their orders through the Chipotle app or online and then quickly pick them up in their cars. It is not a traditional drive-thru that allows customers to order food at the location and have it within minutes.
Still, ordering online and then picking it up in a Chipotlane became particularly popular during the COVID-19 pandemic for the select locations that had them nationwide.
The fast casual Mexican restaurant chain has become widely popular in Maine since it opened its first location in South Portland in 2010.
The Saco location will be part of a large new development being built at the site of Saco’s former Pizza Hut. That complex is also slated to include the first Jersey Mike’s Subs in York County.
Of Maine’s six Chipotle locations, only Auburn’s features a Chipotlane. Among the 131 Chipotle restaurants across New England, relatively few of them have the new feature.