VILLA PARK, Ill. – As Portillo’s opens its latest Central Florida restaurant in Clermont, I thought I’d share my family’s fun history with the popular chain that specializes in Chicago-style hot dogs and Italian beef sandwiches.
My mom and dad were among Portillo’s earliest employees more than 50 years ago. My dad’s later career as a printer can be traced back to making flyers for the restaurant. And what’s now become a family legend, my own name was inspired by one of the Portillo kids!
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My mom, Patti Baucum, moved to a home in Villa Park, Illinois, in 1967 that was a few blocks from where Dick Portillo opened his very first restaurant, The Dog House, four years earlier.
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Today, a large photograph of The Dog House hangs behind the counter at Portillo’s restaurants. The Dog House was a 6-foot by 12-foot trailer that had no running water.
My mom applied for a job at The Dog House during her freshman year of high school. By then, it had been replaced with a slightly larger trailer that finally had indoor plumbing.
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“Up until that point, Dick Portillo did not have any teenage girls working there,” my mom told me. “My job was to take the orders, make the drinks and work the cash register.”
The teenage boys who worked at the hot dog stand occasionally locked my mom in the cooler as a prank, and she still recalls the trailer’s distinctive scent.
“I didn’t make the food, but I still came home smelling like a hot dog,” mom said.
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The employee uniforms were originally solid white until Dick Portillo’s wife Sharon invited my mom on a shopping trip.
“Sharon said, ‘Pick out what you think you would like to work in.’ I picked these red and white striped shirts,” mom told me. “I remember telling Sharon they were kind of hot dog-ish looking. And she thought that was funny.”
While attending Willowbrook High School in Villa Park, also my alma mater, mom met my dad, Jim DeForest.
Around that time, my dad bought a small printing press. His part-time hobby would later turn into a full-time career running a printing company in the Chicago suburbs. That small business would eventually help put me though journalism school.
While dad was still in high school, Dick Portillo hired him to print flyers advertising “four hot dogs for a dollar!” that would be placed under the windshield wipers of cars parked in the nearby shopping center.
“He was one of my first customers,” dad told me.
Meanwhile, mom was eager to spend more time with her high school sweetheart.
“I wanted to work. And I wanted to see your dad. So I got him a job there,” she said. “I remember telling them my boyfriend wanted an interview.”
Dad was originally hired to assemble hot dogs and Italian beefs at Portillo’s second location in nearby Glendale Heights.
“When you weren’t filling orders, you had other stuff do to,” dad said. “He’d get barrels of pickles that we had to slice. You had to slice the tomatoes and onions.”
The two lovebirds were eventually transferred to the growing hot dog chain’s newest store in Addison, where they worked side-by-side during their junior year of high school.
Besides operating the register, mom often helped Sharon Portillo with administrative tasks, like organizing invoices from the Gonnella Baking Company that supplied bread for the popular Italian beef sandwiches.
“I really admired Sharon Portillo,” mom told me. “She took care of her family and took care of the bookkeeping. I feel like she was extremely instrumental in the growth of that company.”
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When Sharon and Dick Portillo would go out on date nights, mom often babysat the couple’s three children: Mike, Joe and Tony.
Mom fondly remembers when the Portillos invited her to accompany the boys on a flight to Acapulco, where they met up with the rest of the family who had arrived in Mexico earlier.
“They were the cutest boys. So, so cute,” mom said. “And I just like the names.”
Patti and Jim DeForest were married in 1974, and the following year their oldest son was born.
They named him Mike.
Despite sharing the same first name, I’ve never met Mike Portillo, who is now the company’s vice president of restaurant support.
And I don’t think my younger brother Joe has met Mike’s younger brother Joe, either.
But I have met their father on a few occasions.
About 15 years ago, while visiting my family in the Chicago area, we bumped into Dick Portillo at his Downer’s Grove restaurant, which was the first to feature a drive-thru.
I told Mr. Portillo that he should build a restaurant in the Orlando area. I even had a location picked out: the former Crossroads shopping center across from Walt Disney World.
(By sheer coincidence, Portillo’s would later open its first Central Florida restaurant less than 2 miles from that spot on Palm Parkway.)
As I recall, Mr. Portillo told me he did not think Orlando would be an ideal market for his restaurant at that moment. Way back then, he believed the Central Florida area had too many tourists and temporary workers who were unlikely to become loyal, repeat customers.
I’m not going to question his judgment and business acumen.
In 2014, Dick Portillo sold his chain of 38 hot dog restaurants to private equity firm Berkshire Partners. The price tag was reportedly close to $1 billion. (Yes, that’s “billion” with a “b”.)
Seven years later, Portillo’s debuted its first of now three Central Florida restaurants. The latest, located at 1251 East Highway 50 in Clermont, will hold its official grand opening Tuesday.
Mom and dad, who played a small role in Portillo’s very humble beginnings, are amazed to see how The Dog House has grown to nearly 90 restaurants in 10 states and is now a publicly-traded company.
“It felt special to work there,” said mom. “Everybody had good things to say about Portillo’s. Dick was so ambitious. He and Sharon both were so conscientious. They treated their employees well and put the business first. So their success doesn’t surprise me at all.”