Every week or two I’ll google our name to see what comes up – this week I ran into your website and your post, and wanted to take a minute to answer your questions.

We know there are lots of skeptics out there, as well there should be. Changing our name from The Wrap after nearly 9 years was more difficult for us than I’m sure anyone might be able to imagine. Had we not had such compelling evidence after years of asking our customers questions, we would never have taken on such an endeavor.

In short, the word “wrap” truly meant to most people cold, relatively tasteless, ultra-healthy sandwiches in a pita roll or something to that effect. Certainly this is debatable, but I have more experience researching this than anyone on the planet, I believe… so you’ll have to trust me somewhat on this, even if your individual experience is different.

On another note, 30% of our sales have always been the Classic Burrito (yes, that one menu item alone). When we asked people what they considered our Teriyaki, or the Buffalo, and others that weren’t traditional Mexican, some suggested that since burritos were typically hot, also healthy, fresh off the grill, etc. that ours were more like Burritos yet not simply Mexican. That’s where the idea of Inspired Burritos came.

On the boring side, we simply couldn’t trademark the name “The Wrap” and for years our lawyers have said it would one day cause us trouble as we expanded. We wouldn’t have changed for this reason alone, but it added to the list. Trying to ask investors for hundreds of thousands of dollars to open restaurants that don’t have any name protection gets harder and harder, as you might imagine.

Anyhow, we liked Boloco (after looking at 20 other names) because it DOESN’T specifically mean anything (though it is derived from Boston Local Co., which we thought was pretty cool)… it doesn’t give people the false sense that they KNOW what we do… when we were The Wrap, they always assumed they did know, even if they really didn’t. (ie. I’ll have a ham and swiss on a pita roll… what? You don’t serve that?? How can you call yourselves “The Wrap”??!)

Well, hopefully that’s shed a little light. You are right that in many ways we are starting over. We knew that was the risk. Hopefully people will realize it’s us, still the same great food (if you liked the food in the first place, that is), and that we aren’t taking our name change quite as seriously as it may seem we are. We did feel it was the right thing to do, but we’ve also used it to reenergize our teams and that alone counts for a great deal! It’s not a corporate take-over, as many have wondered aloud, and it’s certainly not a gimmick to try to trick people into thinking we are something different than we have been. We changed almost nothing on the menu, and will continue to differentiate ourselves by our ingredients, our variety, and our speed, as we have since 1997.

If you happen to have a Boloco card, send me the 16 digit code on back and I’ll load it with some Burrito bucks for your next visit. Even if unintentional, your feedback was very much appreciated… having lunch on us is the least we can do! (if you don’t have a card, pick one up at your next visit and send me the 16 digits then… offer still stands)

One other suggestion… say the word Boloco 15 times in a row… it’s guaranteed to grow on you after you do!

Best,
John Pepper
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John Pepper | CEO and Co-Founder |
Stellar Restaurant Group | Boloco (formerly The Wrap)
http://www.boloco.com