Good luck if you have an empty stomach while reading this week’s edition, which features Christopher Trela’s annual Restaurateur of the Year and Chef of the Year profiles, alongside updates from the just-completed Natural Products Expo West convention, plus news on local tofu makers, vegan food businesses, and more.
Another local business in the news is Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE: CMG), where investors’ appetite for the Newport Beach company’s stock is showing no sign of a letdown.
Chipotle, the nation’s third most valuable publicly traded restaurant chain, as well as OC’s most valuable public company, last week announced plans for a 50-for-1 split of its common stock, due to take place in June.
It’s one of the biggest splits in the history of the New York Stock Exchange.
The move comes as Chipotle has seen its shares nearly double in the past year. The company’s stock price was approaching $3,000 a share as of last week.
“This is the first stock split in Chipotle’s 30-year history, and we believe this will make our stock more accessible to employees as well as a broader range of investors,” Chief Financial Officer Jack Hartung said in a statement.
“This split comes at a time when our stock is experiencing an all-time high driven by record revenues, profits, and growth,” said Hartung, who in early 2020 earned a CFO of the Year Award from the Business Journal. The company counted a $25B valuation at the time.
Shares of Chipotle have risen tenfold since Chief Executive Brian Niccol moved the company’s headquarters from Denver to Newport Beach in 2018. Shares popped last week after the news of the stock split, putting the company’s valuation at over $80B, an all-time high for the company.
To commemorate the split, Chipotle announced a special one-time equity grant for all restaurant general managers as well as crew members with more than 20 years of service.
With Antonello Ristorante in business for 45 years, Antonio Cagnolo is likely the longest-serving owner to earn the Business Journal’s nod as Restaurateur of the Year.
Another achievement for Cagnolo: he’s the first exec to be honored by both of the Business Journal’s esteemed executive dining writers, Christopher Trela and the late Fifi Chao, who years ago named him Chef of the Year.
Chao, who died in 2017, first met Cagnolo in the mid-1970s, prior to the opening of Antonello.
She “helped give me the confidence,” Cagnolo previously told the Business Journal. “We would discuss new recipes, truffles, Bagna Cauda, she knew food. Fifi wasn’t just a friend to the restaurant business. Fifi was a big part of Orange County.”
There’s no shortage of great luxe dining spots in OC, but for those wanting to taste food from some out-of-town stars, check out the eighth annual Culinary Masters Event, taking place in May at The Resort at Pelican Hill.
The event, hosted by the Robb Report, aims to “convene the nations brightest culinary minds.”
Local chefs taking part are Chef Kyung Carroll, director of operations at The Resort at Pelican Hill; and Michelle Bernstein, consulting chef of Lugano Privé.
