Portillo's Restaurants

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Portillo's Restaurants
Type Private
Founded 1967 in Villa Park, Illinois
Headquarters Oak Brook, Illinois, USA
Key people Dick Portillo, Founder, Owner, President
Industry Restaurants
Website www.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 two locations in southern California.

Contents

[edit] Origins

Owner and founder Dick Portillo opened his first restaurant from a trailer with no running water in 1963 in Villa Park, Illinois[citation needed]. Today, each location has different themed decor that reflects his love of history and for his love of Chicago. By design, no two Portillo's are exactly alike.

The Portillo Restaurant Group is in the largest privately-owned restaurant company in the Midwest[citation needed]. 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[citation needed]. The Portillo Restaurant Group is based in Oak Brook, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago.

[edit] Menu

Menu items include Chicago-style hot dogs & Polish sausages, Italian beef sandwiches, chili, salads, and hamburgers that can be topped with mustard, relish, onions, tomatoes, pickle and sport peppers, cucumbers, ketchup and cheese. Salads is also served at certain locations. Side items include french fries, cheese fries, onion rings, chicken tenders, and soup. The dessert menu includes chocolate cake (which can be served in shake form), Malibu Rum cake, strawberry shortcake, lemon cake and cheesecake at select locations.

Portillo's also offers novelty gifts such as schooners, baseball caps, bumper stickers, key fobs, travel mugs, window decals, license plate holders, and t-shirts.

[edit] 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. Portillo's had licensed restaurants using its recipes and themes in Tokyo, Japan in the late 1980s and early 1990s. However, the Japanese restaurants did not fully follow the same tradition as the Chicago area stores and all four eventually closed[citation needed]. Portillo's also delivers part of its menu to all 50 states.

On March 12, 2008, Portillo's opened a location in the city of Moreno Valley, California.

[edit] Links