Portillo's Opens in Gurnee
By: Jonathan Jones 11/10/2015
The moment that we’ve been waitin
g for has finally arrived. Portillo’s is now open in
Gurnee.
The newest Portillos location is positioned in the parking lot of Gurnee Mills just north of Bass Pro Shops near Burlington Coat Factory and Shopper’s World.
Restaurant founder and CEO Dick Portillo brought his first tiny house that he used to sell hot dogs out of when he first opened his Villa Park location in 1963. The Chicagoland area restaurant chain mogul was on hand for the Tuesday morning ribbon cutting and taking photo ops.
Hundreds of Portillo's lovers showed up as the line coiled around the building. Gurnee’s finest were present to direct traffic on this grand opening.
Portillo, Mayor of Gurnee Kyrsti Kovarik and others (including the Miss Gurnee court) joined together to cut the ceremonial ribbon. Before the ribbon cutting, Portillo donated $12,500 to the Northern Illinois Food Bank and another $12,500 to Red Cross.
After that, lunch was served. Some of the highlights to this glorious menu (or at least a slew of my favorites) include succulent Italian beef sandwiches, hearty chopped salad, char-broiled burgers, mouth-watering chocolate cake, their staple hot dogs and sausages and so much more.
This is the second Portillo’s to open in Lake County. The other location is in Vernon Hills.
Scroll down to see some of the pictures from the new restaurant opening. I know I’m excited for some Portillo’s for lunch down the road (…and today)!
