Portillo's Restaurants
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Portillo's is a chain of restaurants that specialize in serving Chicago-style food. Portillo's is located primarily throughout the Chicagoland area.
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[edit] Origins
Owner and founder Dick Portillo opened his first restaurant from a trailer with no running water in 1963 in Villa Park, Illinois. Today, each location has different themed decor that reflects Dick's love of history and for his love of Chicago. By design, no two Portillo's are exactly alike.
With well over 3,000 employees, The Portillo Restaurant Group is in fact the largest privately-owned restaurant company in the Midwest. It owns and operates five different restaurant concepts which include Portillo's, Barney's, Barnelli's, Key Wester Fish & Pasta House / Hemingway's Bar, and Luigi's House, as well as a catering division, Portillo's Home Kitchen, each within 40+ units. The Portillo Restaurant Group is based in Oak Brook, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago.
[edit] Menu
Menu items include Chicago-style hot dogs and Polish sausages that can be topped with mustard, relish, onions, tomatoes, pickle and sport peppers, cucumbers, ketchup and cheese; Italian beef; sandwiches; chili; salads; hamburgers; and more. Side items include French fries, cheese fries, onion rings, chicken tenders, and soup, and for dessert there's the chocolate cake (which can be served in shake form), lemon cake (discontinued indefinitely), Malibu Rum cake, and strawberry shortcake (as well as cheesecake at select locations).
At some Portillo's locations, you can purchase food from either Barnelli's restaurant or from Portillo's, since they share space in the same restaurant. After getting your food, you have your choice of where to sit among many tables. At the Portillo's location in downtown Chicago the tables are situated on two different floors.
Portillo's offers novelty gifts such as schooners, baseball caps, key fobs, travel mugs, window decals, license plate holders, and t-shirts.
[edit] Outside Chicago
Portillo's has opened in Southern California since October 11, 2005, in Buena Park, southeast of Los Angeles, and recently opened a store in Merrillville Indiana, just east of Chicago.
Portillo's had previously licensed restraunts using its recipes and theme in Tokyo, Japan in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The Japanese restraunts however did not fully follow the same tradition as the Chicago area stores and all four eventually closed.
[edit] Recalled Beef Due to Lysteria Contamination
In October of 2006, Portillo's voluntarily recalled 3,703 lbs. of sliced beef because it was contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. The beef was originally cooked on September 27, 2006 and distributed for catering use to Portillo's Restaurants in the Chicago area. The contamination was found through in-plant testing, and no illnesses can be directly attributed.
