Chicagoland Italian beef chain Buona eyes multistate expansion

Miami Herald

23-05-2025

If you're wondering what to get that special someone for National Italian Beef Day, the annual giardiniera-fest coming up Saturday, consider a different kind of combo: beef and ice cream.
Buona, the homegrown Italian beef chain that created the red-letter day 10 years ago, officially opened its 32nd Chicago-area restaurant this week in Gurnee, Illinois, with a co-owned Rainbow Cone ice cream shop tucked inside.
"It's pretty cool," said Joe Buonavolanto III, 35, executive vice president of Burr Ridge-based Buona. "They go and get a beef sandwich and then they walk over and get the Original Rainbow Cone."
Located on Grand Avenue near Six Flags Great America in the far northern suburbs, the newest Buona restaurant is part of a broader expansion by the family-owned chain launched four decades ago in Berwyn, Illinois. A 33rd location will open this summer in Crown Point, Indiana.
All current Buona restaurants are company-owned, but the chain is planning to spread the gospel of the Chicago sandwich steeped in tradition and gravy by opening franchise locations in Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin beginning this fall.
In addition to Italian beef, hot dogs and other offerings, the new restaurants will all include a Rainbow Cone ice cream shop, which occupies less than 10% of the 4,500-square-foot space.
Buona acquired the Original Rainbow Cone, a family-owned South Side staple for nearly a century, in 2018, and now has 14 dual-branded restaurants, five standalone ice cream shops, a Navy Pier kiosk and a museum campus food truck. It also has eight franchised Rainbow locations stretching from California to Florida.
The first dual-branded Buona/Rainbow Cone restaurant opened four years ago in southwest suburban Darien.
"The beauty about this dual concept is it creates additional revenue opportunities throughout the day, and you get to have two iconic Chicago items under one roof," Buonavolanto said. "The Italian beef sandwich and the most iconic Chicago dessert, the Original Rainbow Cone."
Started in 1926, Rainbow Cone features five flavors of ice cream sliced, not scooped, and stacked into a cone or cup. When Buona acquired Rainbow Cone seven years ago, there were two locations - the original shop in the Beverly neighborhood on Chicago's Far South Side and the Navy Pier kiosk.
With the opening of a standalone ice cream shop on Michigan Avenue in July, there will be 30 Rainbow Cone locations in seven states.
But Italian beef, the quintessential Chicago sandwich, remains at the top of the Buona menu - and its expansion plans.
With a history dating back a century, one of the earliest purveyors of the thinly sliced beef, au jus and peppers on an Italian roll was Al's, which started in 1938 as a stand in the Little Italy neighborhood on the Near West Side.
Mr. Beef, another iconic Italian beef stand, opened in 1979 on Orleans Street in River North, developing a loyal lunchtime crowd eating communally on picnic benches, ties flipped over their shoulders to avoid gravy stains. The restaurant gained national prominence through celebrity fans such as Jay Leno, and more recently served as the inspiration for "The Bear," the hit TV series which elevated Italian beef to cult status.
Other longtime favorites include Johnnie's Beef in Elmwood Park and Scatchell's in Cicero. But the mission for exporting the true Chicago staple to other markets across the country has fallen mostly on Portillo's.
Launched as a Villa Park hot dog stand in 1963, Dick Portillo expanded his menu to include Italian beef, burgers, salads and more, and built his chain to 38 restaurants in Illinois, Indiana, California and Arizona before selling to private equity firm Berkshire Partners in 2014.
By the time Portillo's went public in October 2021, it had 67 restaurants in nine states, raising $405 million through the offering with an ambitious plan to expand to 600 locations nationwide.
Since then, Portillo's has grown to 94 restaurants in 10 states, but the company's stock has fallen about 75% from its post-IPO high and the chain has taken some heat from activist investors Engaged Capital over concerns about increasing same-store sales and profitably growing units, advocating for smaller restaurant formats.
On April 28, the restaurant chain announced it reached an agreement with Engaged, which owns 8.6% of Portillo's outstanding stock, to cooperate in appointing a director to the board.
A spokesperson for the California-based hedge fund did not respond to a request for comment.
All of Portillo's 94 restaurants are company-owned with no plans to franchise locations, a company spokesperson said last week.
While Buona's soon-to-be 33 restaurants are also company-owned, it is taking a different approach to out-of-market expansion, with the first franchise location set to open in September in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. That will be followed next year by another Tennessee location, as well as franchises in Texas and Wisconsin, Buonavolanto said.
"It's our goal as we expand into outer markets, to have somebody local that lives in the area, that has a sense of ownership, that invests their own money in building the store," Buonavolanto said. "That's the biggest thing that made us choose a franchise versus opening up our company stores as we expand into new markets."
It is not, however, the first foray into franchising for Buona. In June 2021, Buona opened a franchise location in a food hall kiosk at McGregor Square, an entertainment complex adjacent to Coors Field in Denver. Launched during the pandemic, it lasted six months before Buona pulled the plug, deferring franchising efforts to focus on expansion of company-owned stores.
Those franchising ambitions begin anew this fall, as Buona enters several states in a big way, with plans to open up to 10 restaurants over five years in Texas alone.
"Who else is franchising Italian beef at a high level?" Buonavolanto posited. "The answer is nobody."
Buona is hoping that Rainbow Cone will be another Chicago taste that travels well, with plans to include it in all new restaurants, franchised and company-owned.
But Italian beef will be the main draw as Buona brings a taste of Chicago to places that have only seen it on TV.
"'The Bear' is an entertaining show," Buonavolanto said. "But that really had nothing to do with our desire to expand into new states that we feel have a demand for Italian beef."
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