#12 Elk Grove Village Portillo's

I’m a bit behind in posting.  On Friday 3/19, I met my friend Bob at the Portillo’s in Elk Grove Village.  What’s interesting about this location is that it’s in an industrial area and consequently, I think, it’s the only Portillo’s not open on the weekend.  However, by the looks of it, it doesn’t need to be.  It was so busy that Bob mentioned something along the lines of it being a, “gold mine”. I agreed. Considering it is still Lent, and despite the fact that I don’t follow the “no meat Friday” thing, it’s a good time of year to order seafood.  I ordered the grilled tuna sandwich and I was glad I did.  It was delicious and I’d recommend it to my permanent, and occasional, non-meat-eating friends.  Although I still like to question the logic of fish not being  meat. Something must have gotten lost in translation, because it’s obviously not a plant.  Bob obviously doesn’t follow the annual meatless sacrifice either since he ordered a Polish sausage.  Isn’t it funny that if you capitalize that word it not only changes meaning, but it changes pronunciation.  And, more important, it changes taste, since I don’t think a polish sausage would taste very good.  Although, that just gave me a great idea for a new cleaning product, the “polish sausage.”  Go ahead and run with it, I’ve got a million ideas.  If you make any money on it however please send me a check.  It really is a wonder that anyone can speak English.  There are way too many homonyms, not to be confused with hominy, which by the way is corn and not a bean.  I once informed a lady of this at the Jewel, which, for my friends just learning English, is a store (because it’s capitalized), not a precious stone.

To completely change the subject, you won’t find a picture of Bob below.  He prefers to maintain his privacy.  That sparked an interesting conversation during lunch.  We discussed how we “older” people like to protect our privacy.  It’s an interesting phenomenon since the trend has been to gravitate to social networking sites.  Here people divulge their personal lives in public forums, even their personal goals … like visiting all the Portillo’s in Chicago (plug).  I wonder however if the current generation will regret divulging so much information and attempt to regain some of their privacy.  Or, has the mindset changed completely?  Well, this is way too deep of a subject for a food blog.

Jeff:
Grilled Tuna Sandwich
Vanilla Malt
Bob:
Polish Sausage
Fries

#11 St. Charles Portillo's

A special thank you is owed to William Willett (Englishman) who, in 1907, suggested and lobbied for Daylight Savings Time.  Unfortunately, he croaked (kicked the bucket) just before it was enacted.  The U.S. adopted DST in 1918, after Germany and Great Britain (Wikipedia rocks).  Willett suggested that the clocks be advanced 20 minutes a week for 4 consecutive weeks in April.  After running around and setting 9 clocks in the house, and a clock in each car, I’m glad I only have to change them twice a year.  Besides they (people in the know) recommend that you change the batteries in your smoke detectors when the time changes.  It probably wouldn’t be good for the environment and it could get very expensive throwing out eight sets of batteries!  One interesting thing I read was that the U.S. Department of Transportation notes that traffic fatalities are reduced when there is extra afternoon daylight.  I can believe that.  I drove to and from work the other day at 10 mph because the sun was burning my eyes out.  I guess it’s hard to kill anyone at that speed.  However, I’d wager that both fender benders and cataracts have increased.  The irony may be that more people are now being killed by blind drivers.

Josh mentioned something very interesting during lunch at the St. Charles Portillo’s last Sunday.  He said that he heard that they (the people appointed to look out for our well being) are thinking about changing the shape of hot dogs.  I did a little searching and confirmed, via an on-line Business Week article dated 2/22/2010, that this is in fact true.  It turns out that hot dogs are the perfect shape to choke small children.  I assume they mean lodged in their airways and not wrapped around their necks.  Josh suggested that hot dogs be made hollow like Life Saver candies.  And, Joy suggested that they be filled with mustard.  The more I think about it, I suggest that all food be ground up into mush, that way virtually no one will choke.  Incidentally, I would like my mush dog with everything, thank you.

Jeff
Bacon Burger (bacon is great, but not when limp. suggestion - make it crispier)
Joy
Broiled Chicken (I swear she ordered this before)
Coleslaw (note to self – confirm size with Joy before ordering)
Josh
Jumbo Dog
Cheese Fries

(from cell phone - battery died on camera)

#10 Rolling Meadows Portillo's

My father–in-law used to tell me that there were three types of people in the world.  There are people who talk about things, people who talk about people, and people who talk about ideas.  Last Friday I had the opportunity to relive something that I truly miss, lunch with my friend Tim.  Since Tim and I no longer work for the same company, we don’t see each other that often.  I don’t mean to get sentimental, but it’s important to have good friends, and Tim is a great friend.  Those of you that know me already know that I have more ideas than a dog with fleas.  What’s really great about Tim is that he not only listens to my ideas, he never shoots them down, and he often improves upon them.  He’s one of my most creative friends.  The major difference between us though is that Tim will occasionally act his ideas.  I’m solely an idea person.  I like to joke that some people need to be coaxed to think “outside of the box,” but I have the opposite problem; I can’t think inside the box.

My tenth Portillo’s was the one in Rolling Meadows.  It’s about 20 minutes from where I work.  That’s including the 5 minutes it takes to get out of the very poorly designed parking garage at work.  Seriously, who puts speed bumps in the middle of down ramps?  What are the odds that I’m going to run someone over in the middle?  Zero!  I’m much more likely to mow them over when I round the corners and those daredevils are walking to the inside … Walk to the outside people!!  I’m way off subject here, but I’d like to point out that on the way to this Portillo’s is one of my favorite stores, Mitsuwa.  This is a Japanese grocery store.  Since it is highly unlikely that I’ll ever make it to Japan, I’m happy to live in a city where I can find products and people from around the globe.
Tim wanted me to make a special note about ordering the Maxwell Street Polish at Portillo’s.  Make sure to ask for it on a hot dog bun.  Tim is an encased meat connoisseur, so I’d take his word for it.

Jeff
Hot Dog (yes – everything on it – this is Chicago)
Fries
Tim
Maxwell Street Polish (on a hot dog bun - grilled onions and mustard)
Fries

#9 Arlington Heights Portillo's

The last few weeks have been unbelievably rough with the exception of a really nice visit we had with our good friends at the Arlington Heights Portillo’s.  Between visits #8 and #9 Josh had sinus surgery.  Seems that he had, what the doctor described as a “weird oily substance” trapped in the sinus cavity under his right eye.  The only way to remove it was via, what the doctor described as, a “roto-rooter” like instrument that opens the passage.  What was once the size of a pin hole is now the size of a dime.  Perhaps this is the wrong forum to describe this any further.  Suffice it to say that Josh is now feeling much better and has had fewer headaches.  For complete details, give Joy a call.  While this was going on, our dryer fluffed its last load.  It seems that after 23 years, the motor suddenly, or all of a sudden, or finally, gave out.  After hours of trekking back and forth to Sears, consulting the Consumer Guide, and the Internet, we purchased a new washer and dryer.  Since now it’s almost impossible to find anything made in the U.S., we bought the Korean made LG brand.  Interestingly enough during research we found out that: LG is a big player in washing machines, LG makes the new Kenmore machines, and LG stands for Lucky Goldstar.  Throughout Korea, LG is still known as Lucky.  Let’s hope they're right!

Below you’ll see a picture of Dodie and her daughter Alexa.  You might remember Dodie from the Skokie Portillo’s.  Ironically, this Portillo’s looks exactly like the one in Skokie where I met Dodie on the fourth stop of the quest.  I guess you could call it a quest, right?  Dodie said that this Portillo’s was constructed adjacent to the original Arlington Heights Portillo’s, subsequent to the latter being razed in favor of a parking lot.  It appears that the architects thought that it would have been foolish to construct parallel Portillo’s without providing for parking.  Okay, Dodie didn’t exactly say any of that, I’m just using my pseudo journalistic liberty to paraphrase and embellish her story.  By way of clarification, Dodie also serves as my editor, since she’s a journalism major and a heck of a lot better at grammar than I am.  I hope this is a bit of a challenge for her! Check out the cool hats. You can ask for them on your next visit to Portillo’s.  They're free!!

Jeff
BBQ Chicken Salad (great)
Joy
Cheese Burger (very good)
Josh
Chopped Salad (huh? - guess he needed some roughage)
Dodie
Cheese Burger
Fries
Alexa
Breaded Chicken Sandwich (that's all she ever gets)

Josh win's Oscar