Which States Have The Fast Food Chain Portillo's

Dick Portillo founded "The Dog House" in 1963 — selling food from a mobile trailer located in Villa Park, a former suburb now nestled within Chicago city limits. Four years later, he outgrew this humble location and changed his company's name to Portillo's. Today, over sixty years since its founding, Portillo's is a national chain known for Windy City classics like the Chicago dog and Italian beef sandwiches, though the chain also serve up burgers, chicken, shakes and other fast food staples.

You may be thinking, "That all sounds fantastic, but I've never even heard of Portillo's before!" There's a good reason for that. While the restaurant group enjoyed great success in the Chicago area, Portillo's stuck close to home, only expanding outside of Illinois in 2005, when the brand opened a California location. Now, you can find Portillo's in 10 of the 50 U.S. states – with an 11th, Georgia, on the way as of December 2024.

If you're lucky enough to live in — or to have traveled through — Illinois, California, Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Texas, or Wisconsin, you may have spotted and even patronized a Portillo's. Perhaps you ordered their Char-Grilled Maxwell Street Polish Sausage with a side of cheese fries, or even a tamale. You could have finished your meal off with the signature, fresh-made-every-morning strawberry shortcake. And, if your meal took place at any of Portillo's nine Illinois locations, you may have even experienced the brand's restaurant-concept-within-a-restaurant, Barnelli's Pasta Bowl, featuring noodle selections like fettuccine Alfredo and rigatoni alla vodka.

Portillo's has had several decades to grow, yet may be currently limited to a small number of states because the company doesn't franchise – and doesn't have plans to. However, that doesn't mean you can't experience this Chicago-inspired food at home. Portillo's actually delivers to all 50 states, making it possible to enjoy this enduring nostalgic favorite wherever you are in the country. (There's no international shipping, unfortunately.)

Of course, you can't order off the entire restaurant menu. Choices for shipping include a few highlights, like Italian beef sandwiches, Chicago dogs, and signature chocolate cake. While you might doubt whether this could be cost-effective, the 8-pack Italian beef sandwich package costs $94.99 (two-day shipping is included), coming in at about $12 per sandwich. This is about $3 to $4 more per sandwich than ordering in-store, but that seems like a fairly fair price for convenience. The meat, buns, and toppings are all packaged separately so you can assemble your sandwiches when you're ready for lunch and don't have to worry about mushiness. Just don't expect ketchup to come with your Chicago dogs.