- Portillo's Restaurants
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Portillo's Restaurants 
Type Private Industry Restaurants Founded 1967 in Villa Park, Illinois[citation needed] Headquarters Oak Brook, Illinois, USA Key people Dick Portillo, Founder, Owner, President Website portillos.com Portillo's is a chain of restaurants that specialize in serving Chicago-style food. Portillo's is located primarily throughout the Chicago metropolitan area, and also has two locations in southern California.
Contents
Restaurant facts
Owner and founder Dick Portillo opened his first restaurant from a trailer with no running water in 1963 in Villa Park, Illinois.[1] Several of the later locations were built on property that was formerly the home of closed down Dog n Suds drive-thrus. Today, each location has different themed decor that reflects Mr. Portillo's love of history and of Chicago. By design, no two Portillo's are exactly alike.
Portillo's also has implemented a unique drive-thru system, where the traditional menu-board and speaker system is replaced during peak hours with as many as five to seven employees, who take customers' orders, collect money, and run food out to the respective vehicles. This system, which operates during all but the most severe of weather conditions, is intended to speed up the drive-thru process and increase the accuracy of the orders themselves.
The Portillo Restaurant Group is the largest privately owned restaurant company in the Midwest.[1] It owns and operates four different restaurant concepts, which include Portillo's Hot Dogs, Barnelli's, Luigi's House, a breakfast chain, Honey Jam Cafe, as well as a catering division, Portillo's Home Kitchen.[1] The Portillo Restaurant Group is based in Oak Brook, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago. Frank Portillo, the older brother of Dick, is the president of Chicago-based Brown's Chicken.
In 2007, Debbie Sottile told NBC 5 Chicago's investigative news team that a manager at a Portillo's restaurant in Streamwood had attempted to serve her food that had been retrieved from the garbage. Sottile claimed that an employee had initially given her order to the wrong customer. Sottile then asked the employee to remake the order. The manager agreed and threw the original order in the trash. Sotille stated that she was given a new order in "less than a minute" and that the food she was given was cold. She recognized the bag that the food was served in as the one that had been thrown in the trash and confronted the manager. An argument ensued and local police were contacted. The police stated that the manager admitted to them that the bag had been retrieved from the trash can but that the food it contained was fresh. Sottile claimed that the company offered her $1,500, with the condition that she not discuss the incident with the media and that she refused the settlement. Dick Portillo stated that the incident "never happened" and that the settlement was offered by the restaurant chain's insurance company as standard procedure.[2]
Menu
Portillo's in Elk Grove Village, Illinois
The Portillo's menu includes a variety of items, including Chicago-style hot dogs, Italian beef, hamburgers, sandwiches, ribs, and salads, as well as beer and wine. They also boast dessert items such as chocolate cake and milkshakes, and a mix of the two, the famous Chocolate Cake Shake. This is basically a piece of the chocolate cake blended in with a chocolate shake. One popular item is the Beef n' Cheddar Croissant, which consists of Italian beef, shredded cheddar, and they suggest adding sweet or hot peppers on a 10" croissant. The chain has chosen not to post any nutritional content of their menu items either in-store or online.
The chain's main competition are mostly local, privately owned stores, most of which also specialize in Italian beef and Chicago-style hot dogs. The largest competitor of Portillo's in Chicagoland is Al's Beef.
Outside Illinois
Portillo's has been operating in Southern California since October 11, 2005, at the Buena Park Downtown shopping center in Buena Park. A location also exists in Merrillville, Indiana, though this ostensibly is still within the firm's home market of Chicagoland. Portillo's had licensed restaurants using its recipes and themes in Tokyo, Japan, in the late 1980s and early '90s. However, the Japanese restaurants did not fully follow the same tradition as the Chicago area stores, and all eventually closed.[3] Portillo's also delivers part of its menu to all fifty US states.
On March 12, 2008, Portillo's opened a location in the city of Moreno Valley, California.
References
- ^ a b c History of the Portillo's Restaurant Group | Portillo's Hot Dogs History | Portillos Restaurant Group
- ^ http://www.ripoffreport.com/fast-food-restaurants/portillo-s-hot-dogs/portillo-s-hot-dogs-ripoff-gen-e4a6w.htm
- ^ Portillo's Hot Dogs: Out of the dog house and living the American dream, frankfurter chain operator grows his business independently | Nation's Restaurant News | Find Articles...
External links
Categories:- Companies based in DuPage County, Illinois
- Fast casual restaurants
- Fast-food chains of the United States
- Hot dog restaurants
- Oak Brook, Illinois
- Regional restaurant chains in the United States
- Restaurants established in 1963
- Restaurants in California
- Restaurants in Chicago, Illinois
- Restaurants in Indiana
- Villa Park, Illinois
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