Latest news with #DickPortillo
Daily Mail
09-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Iconic Chicago hotdog joint launches 'The Leo' named after new Pope Robert Prevost
Iconic Chicago hotdog join Portillo's is celebrating the election of Pope Leo XIV with an all new sandwich called 'The Leo' in honor of the Windy City native. The chain's sandwich marks its way of 'paying tribute to Chicago 's newest claim to fame.' The limited-time item includes signature Italian beef dipped in gravy and covered in 'holy trinity of peppers.' 'It's our original sacred sandwich, bold, unapologetically flavorful, and made in honor of a moment that's historic for Portillo's hometown,' a spokesperson said. Its 'heavenly creation' will be available all month long, coinciding with National Italian Beef Month. The sandwich is one of several new items available at Portillo's, which recently launched its first breakfast menu. Portillo's is famous for its Chicago-style hot dogs and was recently crowned the restaurant chain with the ' best value in the business ' over Chipotle and McDonald's. Founded in 1963, Portillo's opened for business after Dick Portillo invested $1,000 on a trailer he called 'The Dog House.' The restaurant's popularity rose over time and is continuing to grow despite the company having less than 100 locations. Five of those restaurants are currently offering the limited-time breakfast menu, the first in its 62 years of business. The menu includes three sandwiches: Polish, egg, & cheese, pepper, egg & cheese, and bacon, egg, & cheese. Customers can also try its new Hash Brown Bites and Load Breakfast Scramble bowls. Along with sandwiches and breakfast sides, Portillo's is offering a new chocolate cake donut and chocolate cake coffee created in collaboration with popular Chicago brands Stan's Donuts and Metropolis Coffee. The restaurant chain revealed that customers have responded positively to the new menu since its launch. Social media users have also reacted well to the offerings and have made requests for the menu to be available at other restaurants. Customers have been rushing to Portillo's restaurants to try items off its new breakfast menu Portillo's CEO Michael Osanloo revealed the foods customers have craved the most off its breakfast menu are scrambled eggs, sandwiches, and the chocolate cake donut. Portillo's will be keeping an eye on other customer responses for the rest of the summer. If guests continue giving positive reviews to the breakfast menu, Portillo's will consider expanding it to other restaurants. Prior to its new offerings, Portillo's earned $176.4 million in first quarter revenue, a 6.4 percent increase compared to last year's total. Its also experienced slight increases in its same-restaurant sales and operating income. 'We're proud of how our team performed through challenging macro conditions in Q1, driven by the launch of Portillo's Perks and our marketing efforts,' Osanloo said. The restaurant chain plans to open 12 new locations this year, including some in Texas and Georgia.
Business Insider
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Business Insider
I ordered the same meal at Freddy's and Portillo's. As a Chicago local, I was shocked by the winning restaurant.
I ordered the same meal at Freddy's and Portillo's to see which one was best. I was pleasantly surprised by the toasted bread Freddy's used for its chili cheese dog. Portillo's vanilla milkshake tasted like a thicker version of soft serve ice cream. As a Chicago native, I'm very familiar with Portillo's. The fast casual restaurant chain serves a variety of my city's hallmark foods, including Italian beef sandwiches, Chicago-style hot dogs, and my usual go-to order, a Maxwell Street Polish sausage. I wasn't as familiar with Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers, another popular fast-food chain with locations across the US, but when I heard great things about their food, I decided to give it a try to see how it compared to Portillo's. I ordered the same meal — a chili cheese dog, chicken tenders, and a vanilla milkshake — at both. Here's how the restaurants compared. I visited Freddy's first. Freddy's was founded in 2002 and has since grown to have more than 500 locations across the US. My partner and I were the only customers when we arrived on a Sunday at 11 a.m. We were greeted by bright pops of red and a 1950s diner aesthetic that still felt modern. I paid $7.30 for my chili cheese dog, $8.30 for a large order of chicken tenders, and $5.20 for a regular vanilla milkshake, bringing my total to about $22 including tax. Freddy's chili cheese dog is a must-try menu item. I had no expectations going into Freddy's, and it didn't take long to receive my chili cheese dog and chicken tenders. With a significant amount of chili, thin shreds of cheese, and diced onions, I was pleasantly surprised by my meal as soon as I saw it. The bread was something special and reminded me of Texas Toast, with just enough sturdiness to hold this notoriously messy dish together. Plus, it didn't get soggy even after sitting for a while. The toppings barely spilled as I ate, and the hot dog was grilled to perfection and tasted great. Meanwhile, the chicken tenders were on the thinner side. They weren't overly breaded, but tasted well-seasoned and crispy. The vanilla milkshake was made with Freddy's signature frozen custard and was very thick, but easy to drink with the size of the straw provided. Then, I went to Portillo's. Portillo's was founded by Dick Portillo in 1963 as a hot dog stand called "The Dog House," and has since grown to have more than 70 locations in the US. Walking into Portillo's was familiar territory. The location I visited had an interior theme that drew from the 1920s and the Great Depression. I placed my order at a self-service screen and waited to hear my number called. I paid $5.50 for my chili cheese dog, $6.20 for four chicken tenders, and $5.30 for a large vanilla milkshake, bringing my total to about $19 including tax. Portillo's chili cheese dog tasted good, but the chicken tenders were disappointing. I was underwhelmed after opening my chili dog. The chili was more saucy, with little meat or beans, and there wasn't much of it. There was, however, a decent layer of nacho cheese underneath. Portillo's uses poppy seed buns for their chili cheese dogs, and although this is a delicious option, I don't think it provides the support this dish needs. Although the bread didn't break, things got messy and it became more of a hassle to eat than Freddy's option. Still, the best part of the chili cheese dog was the hot dog itself. Portillo's uses Vienna Beef products, the signature sausage for a Chicago-style hot dog. Together, the Vienna Beef hot dog and poppy seed bun made the chili dog worth the extra mess. The chicken tenders tasted good, too, but overall, I was disappointed by them. The breading was thick and had a nice crunch in some spots, but left little to no chicken in other bites. Since the tenders were fried fresh, I ripped them in half to allow each to cool faster, but in doing so, the breading started to slide off, leaving me with naked pieces of white meat. Finally, I ordered a large milkshake because Portillo's didn't have a medium option. My shake came in a huge cup and was $0.10 less than the medium I received at Freddy's. It tasted like I was drinking a thicker version of soft serve vanilla ice cream. Now, I understand the hype around Freddy's. I now fully understand the hype around Freddy's. The quality of the food is fresh and tasty, and I think you get a better experience here for about the same price as other fast-food restaurants. However, this review doesn't eliminate Portillo's from my rotation. Some of the items I typically order can only be found at Portillo's and other local Chicago spots, so although Freddy's won this competition, there are other ways it just can't compare.
Chicago Tribune
11-04-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Trying to find its footing, Portillo's takes breakfast for a test run
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.
