LOS ANGELES-Chipotle Mexican Grill has signed leases for additional ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen locations here and in Washington DC.

ShopHouse, the Southeast Asian concept developed by Chipotle, currently has one restaurant open in Washington, DC, with another Washington location and two Los Angeles area restaurants under construction and opening in the coming weeks.

“The response we have seen to ShopHouse reminds me very much of what I saw when I opened the first Chipotle,” said Steve Ells, founder, chairman and co-CEO of Chipotle. “People love the food and the experience, and appreciate that we are giving them something that is unique and flavorful, and doing it in a way that is accessible and affordable.”

The newest ShopHouse locations will be at 1055 Broxton Ave. in Westwood, CA, 710 7th Street NW in Washington, DC, 4820 Bethesda Ave. in Bethesda, MD, and 11800 Rockville Pike in Rockville, MD. The restaurants in Westwood and Bethesda are slated to open late in 2013, with the Rockville and Washington, DC locations slated to open in mid- to late-2014.

ShopHouse is influenced by traditional ingredients, flavors and cooking techniques of Southeast Asia, and the restaurant gets its name from traditional shophouses, a common form of architecture in Southeast Asian cities in which families live upstairs and operate restaurants or fresh markets on the ground floor. The ShopHouse model closely resembles Chipotle, including a commitment to serving food made with highest quality ingredients from more sustainable sources, preparing food in an open kitchen using classic cooking techniques, and serving customers in an interactive format that allows each individual to pick and choose exactly what goes in to their own order.

Chipotle opened with a single restaurant in 1993 and currently operates more than 1,450 restaurants.  ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen opened its first restaurant in 2011 in Washington, DC.