Trying to find its footing, Portillo's takes breakfast for a test run

Chicago Tribune

11-04-2025

Ice cream for breakfast? In Chicago, it's more like an Italian Beef.
Oak Brook-based hot dog giant Portillo's is trying out a breakfast menu for the first time in its 62 years, the company announced Friday. The trial menu — which will be available daily at five Chicago-area restaurants starting April 15 — comes as the homegrown chain has struggled, at times, to find its footing amidst ambitious national expansion plans.
Other than the Italian beef, the company's breakfast offerings are comparatively traditional, with more subtle nods to the company's heritage.
A Polish sausage, egg and cheese and a pepper, egg and cheese both come with Giardiniera sauce. Also on tap is coffee courtesy of Metropolis, including a chocolate cake iced coffee inspired by the Portillo's chocolate cake shake. A chocolate cake doughnut, topped with Portillo's chocolate cake frosting, was borne of a collaboration with Stan's Donuts.
Founded in a Villa Park parking lot in 1963, Portillo's was family-owned until 2014, when founder Dick Portillo sold the company to Boston-based private equity firm Berkshire Partners. Berkshire, in turn, took the hot dog empire public in 2021. Since then, Portillo's has announced ambitious plans to grow itself from a local chain to a truly national one, with plans to add hundreds of restaurants to its current fleet of more than 90 outposts over the next two decades.
But the company has struggled to find its footing at times, facing investor activism, labor disputes and complaints from some patrons that the food isn't quite as good as it used to be. Its stock price, which hit a high of more than $50 shortly after its IPO, closed around $11 on Thursday.
David Henkes, senior principal at Chicago-based food service research firm Technomic, said he isn't surprised that Portillo's would try out breakfast.
'It's all in search of growth right now,' said Henkes, speaking before the details of Portillo's dayside offerings became available.
Breakfast will be available at the company's 520 W. Taylor St. restaurant in Chicago as well as one location each in suburban Elmhurst, Tinley Park, Shorewood and Niles.
Breakfast will be served at least through the summer, though the trial could expand to other restaurants or into the fall. Breakfast hours will be from 6:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
'Chicago has been asking for Portillo's breakfast for years, and we're thrilled to deliver our unique take on morning classics,' the company's vice president of strategy and culinary, Garrett Kern, said in a statement.
For $7.99, customers can get a meal deal that comes with a breakfast sandwich, hash brown bites and a small coffee. Individual breakfast sandwiches, including a bacon, egg and cheese on a croissant, go from $4.99 to $5.29. Chocolate cake doughnuts will run you $2.79 apiece and $24.99 for a dozen.
The breakfast move comes after the company's activist investor, Engaged Capital, launched a proxy fight by nominating two independent candidates to the company's board last month. At the time, Portillo's said in a statement that it 'values the perspectives of all of its shareholders' and had 'held numerous meetings with representatives of Engaged Capital to better understand their views and recommendations.'
Sources familiar with conversations between Portillo's and Engaged suggested the activist thought offering breakfast could help drive in-store traffic, provided the company executes the attempt well.
Portillo's revenue increased 4.5% in 2024, the company said in a fourth-quarter earnings release earlier this year. But that growth primarily came from new restaurant openings — same-store sales, which Engaged hopes to boost, declined 0.6% during the same period.
Portillo's will announce its first quarter earnings at the beginning of May.