0:00

It's one thing to pass by Portillo's

0:02

around 5pm and see that drive -through line

0:04

wrapped around the parking lot. But what

0:06

about first thing in the morning? What

0:08

are they lining up for? I'm Sasha Ann

0:10

Simons, and this is Reset. The

0:24

iconic Chicago chain Portillo's is testing

0:26

a breakfast menu at five

0:28

locations in the area. And I

0:30

gotta say, I'm intrigued. Breakfast

0:32

is the most important meal of the

0:34

day, so who's to say a chocolate

0:36

cake donut isn't a necessity at 8

0:38

a .m.? Not me. WBEZ

0:40

producers Sienna Grieves, Linnea Dominic and

0:42

Meha Ahmed joined me in the

0:44

studio to taste these exciting additions

0:46

to the menu. To kick us

0:48

off, here's how Sienna reacted to the news.

0:51

there was quite a buzz around

0:53

Portillo serving breakfast that I wasn't expecting.

0:55

I mean, every outlet was carrying

0:57

this news. So this was a big

0:59

cultural moment for Chicago. Yeah,

1:02

I was interested. Familiar

1:05

with fast food breakfast, definitely

1:07

like maybe some higher end, you

1:09

know, sit down dining for breakfast and

1:11

brunch. I've never really thought about

1:13

breakfast in this fast casual dining space.

1:15

So I was interested to see

1:17

what they were gonna put up. Linnea?

1:19

I was confused. Tell

1:21

us more. I said Italian beef

1:23

as breakfast. I don't think so. I'm not sold. I

1:25

am not sold. Yeah, I'm right there with you. I

1:27

was I was thinking, huh? How

1:29

are they going to pull this off? What about you,

1:31

Meha? I had faith. I don't know about y 'all,

1:33

you know, because so positive. I like so much

1:35

of what Portillo's has to offer. And, you know, they've

1:37

got the bread. They've got the meats. They've got

1:40

all these other ingredients. They could they can

1:42

make a sandwich. They're good at

1:44

making sandwiches. I trusted them. So settle

1:46

this for us, Sienna. I mean, is

1:48

there a classic? Chicago

1:50

breakfast? I could not

1:52

think of one. And I was thinking about this as

1:54

I was heading to Portillo's at seven in

1:56

the morning. You know, I'm

1:58

from New York. We have the bacon

2:01

egg and cheese. Pennsylvania has

2:03

scrapple. Maryland has crab cake on

2:05

anything, the famous crab cake

2:07

Benedict. I couldn't really. think of

2:09

a single Chicago dish that

2:11

was their signature breakfast dish. Asked

2:13

around, WBEZ morning edition host,

2:16

Mary Dixon, has nominated the egg

2:18

and pepper sandwich. She

2:20

said it's really, really

2:22

classic Chicago, very popular,

2:24

especially around Lent. And

2:26

resident... I'm sorry, Chicago

2:28

historian Sherman Dilla Thomas had

2:30

nominated the Super Donut, which was

2:33

an individually wrapped donut. I

2:35

guess it was really, really popular.

2:38

Mejha is intrigued. Wrapped with what? It's just an

2:40

individually wrapped donut so you can get it

2:42

at the gas station, corner store, really popular. Kind

2:44

of like a honey bun. Really

2:46

popular with school age students. Mejha.

2:49

I wouldn't have thought that was a local thing.

2:51

I've never heard of it. I

2:54

think I have heard of the egg and pepper. sandwich,

2:56

like as a local thing. So that's not

2:58

a surprise to me, but I didn't hear about

3:00

the Super Donuts. I feel like the branding

3:02

on that has like, we really missed that one.

3:05

And also the apple pancake. which in

3:07

a few Google searches, that was

3:09

sort of pegged as the signature Illinois

3:11

breakfast dish. And Mejha, let's get

3:13

it right. It's pepper and egg, not

3:15

egg and pepper. Excuse the heck

3:18

out of me. So Sienna,

3:20

why is Portillo's doing this in the

3:22

first place? Well, I spoke with

3:24

their comms director, Sarah Worth. She was

3:26

also at the... Taylor Street location

3:28

where I was posted up and she

3:30

said this is something that customers

3:32

have been asking for Portillo's opens at

3:34

10 30 a .m. Traditionally and customers

3:36

have been saying you know can

3:38

you open up a little earlier and

3:40

they've been inquiring about a breakfast

3:43

menu so this is something that's actually

3:45

been an incubator for quite some

3:47

time right and they launched and they

3:49

are hoping to keep it permanent

3:51

but that's depending on customer feedback so

3:53

how wild was it you went

3:55

Linnea this morning again another tough assignment

3:57

for reset for you. What

3:59

was the scene? I will

4:01

gladly take this job. You know, I walked

4:03

in and I was expecting the smell of

4:05

fried onions. And it wasn't that it actually

4:07

kind of smelled like breakfast. There

4:09

were not a lot of people,

4:12

but the people that were there were

4:14

really excited to try this out.

4:16

And I talked to two diehard Portillo's

4:18

fans, Andy Siegel and Diane Gibbs.

4:20

Here's Diane. I flew in from

4:22

Baltimore just for this breakfast this morning. And

4:24

when Portillo's does something, you got to

4:26

listen. Because they're always ahead of the crowd.

4:28

And I said to her, she was flying

4:30

back. I said, it's time to

4:33

go to Portillo's. They have the best chopped salad

4:35

in the world. They do. Don't you think

4:37

they have the best? I love it. I was

4:39

telling her. And I said, yes, I'm getting

4:41

one to go. We're having breakfast and that. You

4:43

know, Portillo's has created a whole nationwide thing.

4:45

You know, in Dallas, you can only get 12

4:47

sandwiches at once. They limit you. Portillo's

4:50

as cool as it gets. You

4:53

know, I go to fine dining

4:55

restaurants, but Portillo's is just love. Yeah.

4:59

You think anything more Chicago than Portillo's? I

5:01

don't think so. Wait,

5:06

Diane came from Baltimore. He

5:09

came from Baltimore this morning. Diane.

5:11

Diane. Diane. Baltimore

5:15

has good breakfast. Baltimore has great breakfast.

5:17

I mean, you just mentioned the crab

5:19

cake. The crab cake on everything. Crab

5:21

cake on waffles, crab cakes on pancakes.

5:23

Listen, that's dedication. That's dedication. What did

5:25

you hear from customers when you went

5:27

on launch day, Tuesday, Sienna? Well, like

5:29

Linnea said, there was a lot of

5:31

activity in the drive -thru, not so

5:33

much in the actual dining room. But,

5:35

you know, I walked away, you

5:37

know, if you're a fan of

5:39

Portillo's, you're going to be a fan

5:41

of Portillo's breakfast. Really interesting though, there were

5:43

a lot of Part

5:46

of me service workers and first responders

5:48

who were in that dining room. So

5:50

I spoke with Mary Harris who was

5:52

a nurse from the south side She

5:54

was very excited. She's like this is

5:56

when I get off. I'm off around

5:58

6 30 any a .m. She was

6:00

very happy to have Additional breakfast options

6:02

for her and her family. She likes

6:04

to give her kids some food on

6:06

their way out So she got a

6:08

dozen of the chocolate cake donuts to

6:10

bring home with her family And she

6:12

was pretty excited about the prospect of

6:14

new food options. So they're offering signature

6:17

breakfast They've got a Polish sausage, egg

6:19

and cheese, pepper egg and cheese, bacon

6:21

egg and cheese. Before we taste

6:23

it here in studio, I wanna hear

6:25

a little bit of what Andy, who

6:27

you talked with this morning, Linnea. Andy,

6:29

sounds like Andy tried the Polish sandwich

6:31

and was a little nostalgic. Years

6:34

and years ago when I was a

6:36

kid, over here was a place called Maxwell

6:38

Street. There'd be all these Polish, that's

6:40

why it's called a Maxwell Street Polish. So

6:42

this is a Maxwell Street breakfast. And

6:44

I went there with my dad

6:46

in this 50s and 60s. So this

6:48

takes you all the way back to

6:51

original Chicago roots. All right, I'm sold.

6:53

Let's try these sandwiches, shall we? Let's

6:55

give it a go. So y 'all

6:57

try the Polish, right? And

6:59

I will have the pepper, egg, and cheese.

7:01

I will join you with that. OK. I

7:03

will join you on the pepper, egg, and

7:05

cheese too. I do have to say, when

7:07

I was cutting these up to serve to

7:10

all of us, there is one slice of

7:12

pepper on each. of the sandwiches, just a

7:14

single slice of pepper. So if you're really

7:16

going in for the mix of protein and

7:18

vegetable, you're not going to get that. Not

7:20

going to get it. Yeah. Well,

7:22

I can tell you this French

7:24

bread is divine. The bread is

7:26

excellent. The bread is excellent. The bread is

7:28

excellent. Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm. I'm not mad

7:30

about it. Not mad at this at

7:32

all. It's a really savory sauce. It's

7:35

not just a cheese sauce. It's herbed.

7:38

Mm -hmm, absolutely. The

7:40

pepper -egg and cheese, as you know, is vegetarian -friendly.

7:43

Scrambled eggs. Roasted

7:45

sweet peppers. American cheese. One

7:47

sweet pepper. Oh, that one sweet pepper. I

7:49

mean... Zesty Jardinera. They didn't have to

7:51

be so cheap on the pepper. Sweet pepper.

7:53

They could have thrown like a second

7:55

one in there. Right. You've also

7:57

put something else on our plates

8:00

here. We've got the famous... cake,

8:02

which is now a donut. And

8:05

it's also an iced coffee flavor.

8:07

What else should we know about that? Cause

8:10

I can't picture a chocolate

8:12

cake iced coffee flavor. That's

8:15

why I'm here. My

8:18

house here for the iced coffee. I'm always here for

8:20

coffee. I love to be caffeinated. I haven't tried it

8:22

yet. Why am I worried? I'm gonna try it. I

8:25

don't know what to expect. How do you

8:27

put a cake into a drink? You can sip

8:29

it. Those

8:32

who listen I taste I don't you

8:34

don't taste the chocolate. I don't think

8:36

I taste it. I mean the coffee

8:39

is delicious This is actually a really

8:41

good iced coffee. I'm not a huge

8:43

iced coffee person, but but the chocolate

8:45

cake But I don't know that the

8:47

cake is coming Maybe

8:49

it's a note. A

8:51

note. So

8:54

this is a pilot program, right, Sienna? Yes,

8:57

yes. How long is it going to last?

8:59

They don't know yet. This is all depending

9:01

on customer feedback. Mm -hmm. Well, I feel

9:03

like just hearing the anecdotes that you all

9:05

have shared, I feel like this is going

9:07

to be around for a while. Mm -hmm. Most

9:09

likely. Definitely. Most likely. I don't think this

9:11

is just going to come and go in

9:14

a month. No. Yeah. Shall we

9:16

try the donut? Yes, let's do already did it. It

9:19

looks very fudgy. The

9:21

donut was definitely my favorite of everything that I

9:23

tried. That's pretty cool. And it's the icing.

9:25

It is the icing. The icing is so fantastic.

9:27

If you're a chocolate lover, you're going to

9:29

love this. It's a little too chocolatey for me,

9:31

but this is a chocolate lover's dream, I

9:33

think. I think if you like the cake, you'll

9:35

like this. This is actually a pretty good

9:37

donut. And I'm not like, I don't mind a

9:39

donut. It's not my first dessert. And I'm

9:41

like, I think, Sienna, we were talking before the

9:43

show. We're both pretty basic in our donut

9:45

taste. It's a glaze or nothing. Yeah, I'm a

9:47

glazed. But I'm feeling this one. I like

9:49

it. Yeah, this is great. It's a lot. I

9:51

just feel like I just, literally, that one

9:53

bite felt like I got two cavities. I feel

9:55

like you could definitely share this donut with

9:57

a friend. Yes. I'm not sharing this. Absolutely. I

10:00

mean, and you're a donut. I love donuts.

10:02

I crave them every day. So

10:05

it's five locations, as I mentioned

10:07

earlier. Where are they, and what are

10:09

some of the prices? Well,

10:12

I went to the

10:14

Taylor Street location. As

10:16

far as price point, I was

10:18

able to get the... breakfast combo,

10:20

I did the Polish sausage, which

10:23

comes with hash browns and a

10:25

coffee, that's $7 .99. Again, fast,

10:27

casual, I don't think it's a

10:29

bad point. I'm not mad at

10:31

that at all. So they got

10:33

the Taylor Street location, won an

10:35

Elmhurst, Tinley Park is participating, Shorewood

10:37

and Niles. Wow,

10:40

so. Spread out, everybody. It's spread

10:42

out. So the real question here is

10:44

you've sampled a few things, a

10:46

couple of you have actually gone in

10:48

and checked out the mayhem. Will

10:50

you actually order this moving forward for

10:52

breakfast? Let's go around the room

10:54

here, Meha. I'm eating

10:56

the hash brown. As

10:58

you chew on the hash brown. On the

11:00

hash brown bites. I would definitely do

11:02

the egg and pepper, did I

11:05

say it wrong again? Pepper and egg sandwich.

11:07

Correct. And the donut. I will say,

11:09

I wish that like, as somebody who doesn't

11:11

eat pork, I wish it was more than just one

11:13

option in that part of the menu, because the other one

11:15

has bacon and I think the other one has the

11:17

Polish sausage. I like the

11:19

option I have. I wish I had more, but I

11:21

mean, I would do it again. What's your verdict, Linnea?

11:23

I wouldn't go out of my way. But

11:25

if I was near a Portillo's

11:27

and I was hungry, I would go

11:29

and I would enjoy it. I

11:31

think I echo Linnea's sentiment wouldn't go

11:33

out of my way. If I

11:35

was near Portillo's, I would probably go

11:38

for the hash browns and the

11:40

chocolate doughnut with a coffee. Love

11:42

the polar sausage, but it's a little hard

11:44

to eat. I'm

11:46

just confused looking at it on the sandwich.

11:48

And it comes jumping out when you

11:51

take a bite because the sausage is whole.

11:53

Maybe a sliced sausage? I just also

11:55

feel like if I made it to Portillo's,

11:57

even if I went for breakfast, once

11:59

I got there, I would be like, or

12:02

or am I getting lunch? And

12:04

I think I just get like a chopped chicken salad

12:06

or like a cheeseburger. I certainly would eat it. of

12:09

these is available for breakfast. It is a breakfast

12:11

menu, so. Not doing it. You save it for

12:13

later. I don't have it at 9 AM, 8

12:15

a .m. They also have what seems to be

12:17

their version of a skillet, which is hash browns

12:19

with egg on top, cheese and bacon. I

12:21

would probably go for that. Easier to

12:23

eat and I love a skillet. Yeah.

12:25

I love a skillet. I love a

12:28

skillet. All right, well, you heard it

12:30

here first, folks, from WBEZ producer, Sienna

12:32

Grieves, and resets Meha Ahmed Lene Dominic.

12:34

Thank you so much. Thank you, Sasha.

12:39

This episode of the Reset was produced

12:41

by Lenea Dominic. It was edited

12:43

and mixed by Meha Ahmed. Like what

12:45

we do? Subscribe to the podcast.

12:47

We drop new episodes every weekday, morning

12:49

and afternoon, with a bonus on

12:51

Saturdays. I'm Sasha Ann Simons. Thanks for

12:53

listening, and we'll talk again soon.