Fans of Chicago’s iconic Portillo’s will now be able to get their fix bright and early.
The hot dog and Italian beef chain launched a test program of breakfast items at five Chicago-area locations Tuesday. New menu items include three breakfast sandwiches, chocolate cake iced coffee and a chocolate cake donut. And yes, they’ll serve Italian beef in the morning.
Customers have been asking for morning hours and breakfast items for a long time, according to Sara Wirth, Portillo’s director of public relations and communications. The chain began testing the new menu items about a year ago, and now have morning hours at these five locations in the Chicago area:
- Niles: 8832 W. Dempster St.
- South Loop: 520 W. Taylor St.
- Shorewood: 1155 Brook Forest Ave.
- Elmhurst: 155 S. Route 83
- Tinley Park: 15900 Harlem Ave.
Breakfast is available from 6:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. at each location. A combo meal including a breakfast sandwich, coffee and hash browns will cost $7.99.
“We have people who line up really early, they want their Italian beef at 9 a.m. So we figured there’s an appetite for it, why not test it out?” Wirth said.
Gabriel Ortiz, who came from the Midway area after seeing breakfast advertised on Facebook, arrived at the restaurant early. He ordered “everything on the menu,” but said he was especially impressed with the Polish sausage breakfast sandwich and the chocolate cake iced coffee.
“It’s so ‘flavor-y'” Ortiz said about the sandwich.
And the chocolate cake iced coffee? “It’s so good, it tastes just like the cake.”
Mary Harris, a nurse, said she’s been a longtime fan of Portillo’s and most of their menu items. She saw on the news that the chain would be adding breakfast, so she had to check it out.
“I said, ‘Breakfast? Okay, when I get off work, I’m not cooking, I’m gonna try that instead,'” Harris said.
She ordered donuts to bring back to her South Side home for her family.
Customer feedback will determine whether breakfast will be expanded to include more menu items, Wirth said. Panels of guests tried experimental menu items and concluded which breakfast sandwiches would be the best. Feedback will continue to guide where the chain’s breakfast goes from here, she said.
Contributing: Mary Norkol