Two guys and a burrito joint

BTB Burrito is a counter-service restaurant, providing good tasting, healthy, and inexpensive burritos, tacos, and quesadillas in a college atmosphere. Our philosophy is to be simple, fast, and cheap, without being soulless. It is a vastly superior product in terms of value, nutrition, and quality to other fast food, or counter-service restaurants.

BTB Burrito has a non-corporate feel and can adapt to its community by identifying and interacting with college students in a way that most other businesses cannot. The cofounders of BTB Burrito are young and idealistic: one is a few classes short of graduation, and the other still thinks he’s a college student although he is somewhat mistaken.

The Owners

Film and Video student Adam Lowenstein couldn’t help but let his mind wander from the daily grind of junior year at University of Michigan. While returning home to his native California on break, Lowenstein always ate as much Mexican food as possible. On one of these trips he met up with boarding school friend Justin Herrick. Lowenstein informed him that Ann Arbor was in desperate need of a burrito place and the concept of BTB Burrito was born. Herrick had been interested in the burrito business for some time but had a difficult time deciding on the location for the venture. While his initial idea involved opening a restaurant in Australia, plans fell through and he was left pursuing other avenues. An Amherst College graduate, Herrick was a biology major about to enter medical school in the Southern California area. While he was working at a hospital in Los Angeles, Lowenstein, a friend from the high school days at Midland School in Santa Barbara County, convinced Herrick that Ann Arbor was the perfect fit for his burrito dreams.

What Happened Next?

The first store, originally named Big Ten Burrito, opened to huge success in its first year, quickly becoming a campus staple. Its food value, genuine feel, and late hours appealed to students and the word spread like the proverbial wildfire. After a year, and much pleading by customers, the next logical step was to open a store in East Lansing Michigan, home to U of M’s sister school and rival, Michigan State. The East Lansing store was then followed up with a second Ann Arbor location to help feed burritos to the masses. The Big Ten Conference envious of the success Big Ten Burrito was having compared to the conference's recent performances in BCS bowl games, did not take too kindly to the likeness in name and a name change was in order. Since Big Ten Burrito has always been about its patrons the Ann Arbor store held a name change competition allowing customers to chooses names and vote on their favorites in exchange for great food deals. The result...BTB Burrito.