Portillo's Defames a Classic

I was on the go today and needed to eat quickly. I found myself downtown headed for the Expressway, so I decided to pull into the Portillo's drive thru on Clark and Ontario for a Polish. Now, Portillo's has never been my favorite place for getting a polish, but I thought they did at least a serviceable job. Today, they completely insulted me and every Chicagoan by serving a "Maxwell Street Polish" (grilled polish, grilled onions, sport peppers and mustard) on a piece of Gonnella bread, not a poppy seed bun. What the F**K is up with that? They are giving tens of thousands of tourists the wrong idea of what this Chicago classic is supposed to be...not to mention throwing off the taste/texture profile of the sandwich. It's just shameful.

Yeah, I remember the Gonella bread. Blasphemy.
When I had my office in River North, we'd often default to Portillo's for lunch. I'll never forget their marinara sauce, redolent of raw garlic.
Man, that's eatin'!

I agree completely, but judging by a recent thread on Y*lp, some people like it on those gonella rolls.

I don't get it.

gleam wrote:I agree completely, but judging by a recent thread on Y*lp, some people like it on those gonella rolls.

I don't get it.

Yeah, but there ain't nothin' wrong with enjoying it. Just don't call it a "Maxwell Street Polish".

Best,
Michael

Oh, absolutely. I consume culinary travesties on a regular basis. Heck, I had a Chipotle 'burrito' the other day. It's not my cup of tea, but others are welcome to enjoy it.

My wife eats hot dogs with ketchup on them.

Steve -- I feel your pain.

Today I dined at the new deli in the Sears Tower -- Augustino's. It was fair to middling -- certainly better than the horrible place that Mrs. Levy's Delicatessen became before it vanished into the night and was replaced with a restaurant that lasted about 5 minutes. While it bills itself as a deli, it's really sort of an all around diner-y place. They serve deli sammiches -- the pastrami looked pretty thick and decent but I was in the mood, in much the same way Steve was -- for a real authentic Maxwell Street Polish, which they serve, along with burgers, other dogs and beef sandwiches and meatball sandwiches.

My polish, while incredibly long (i swear it was close to a foot long) was wonderful -- served exactly as i like it with mustard and raw onion...BUT...

also served in a gonnella crusty bun. WHAT IS GOING ON?

Don't they realize that the bun for a polish should be smooshable? So that you get the hard crunch of biting into the pure lovely skin of the polish and not having to fight the dang bun to get to it?

Now...for a sub -- it would have been perfect -- but I didn't want a sub. I wanted a polish. And while the bun was fresh and tasty as buns go...it just wasn't RIGHT.

So...Portillo's is not the only place to not get it.

That coupled with my EL ride home of 90 (!!!!) minutes...it's just been a sad day in Chicagoland.

Shannon

I will be curious to see what everyone thinks of this new Augustino's location - there are two here in the western 'burbs - the original in Carol Stream and one that is a coupla years old in West Chicago. I've always liked the Italian Subs although I kinda customize it to my own taste, but the one in West Chicago definitely paled in comparison when we've ordered from it. Kindly report back!! Thanks

gleam wrote:
My wife eats hot dogs with ketchup on them.

And she is still your wife?

rosie wrote:I will be curious to see what everyone thinks of this new Augustino's location - there are two here in the western 'burbs - the original in Carol Stream and one that is a coupla years old in West Chicago.

I like the original a lot as well. Good subs, car shows, rock and roll, what's not to like? I was excited when I saw that they were going into the plaza at Rt. 59 and Rt. 64, but my experience wasn't anything phenomenal as well - I think they spent too much time worrying what Elvis stuff to put on the walls to worry about the grub.

I'm not getting my hopes up over the Sears Tower location, but I hope it'll be good for them. Their italian subs are great, tho - a bunch of people I didn't like in high school used to work there a while ago and I managed to swallow my angst and allow them to handle my food, just to get their sammich.

butter674 wrote:

gleam wrote:
My wife eats hot dogs with ketchup on them.

And she is still your wife?

To be fair, I imported her from canada, where they put gravy on french fries.

Ketchup on hot dogs is the least of my concerns, at this point.

Gee, you guys can be crusty.

Not sure when Portillo's switched bread, but I do enjoy their Polish the two or three times a year I end up there. And while I understand this new presention is not correct, I look forward to seeing if it is tasty.

And I used to eat at Chipotle once or twice a month - soft chicken tacos with lettuce, pico de gallo and hot sauce on them, then douse liberally with lime juice from the slices provided at the beverage station. Not a bad meal, and relatively healthy. Somehow I fell out of that habit in the last year or so. Maybe I felt remorseful about supporting them and the company I was keeping there. Lord knows those burritos are a real travesty.

dicksond wrote:Gee, you guys can be crusty.

Not sure when Portillo's switched bread, but I do enjoy their Polish the two or three times a year I end up there. And while I understand this new presention is not correct, I look forward to seeing if it is tasty.

Besides being JUST PLAIN WRONG, the huge amount of bread overwhelms the garlicky taste of the sausage. See what you think.

Thanks for letting us know, Stevz, I'll request a bun if I should stop in there for a polish. I've seen some places do this with burgers (Krolls, yuk). Italian sausage with peppers and red sauce, yes. Polish, no.

Only been to Chipotle's once (4 years ago)& had a burrito. My impression was that it was surprisingly tasty. Its a different animal than the taqueria versions-but fresh tasting with good spice levels. Kinda like apples & volkwagons....

I like the chew of a heavier bread with a polish sausage rather than a simple bun.

I'm always fascinated by the concept that doing it is just plain wrong to put ketchup on a hot dog or a polish in a roll. Who determines these rules?

If you think about it, if people really believed that crap, a hamburger probably would have never ended up on a bun, let alone have cheese on it, because it would have been wrong.

I'm sure that the Chicago dog would never have evolved into what it is either.

gleam wrote:To be fair, I imported her from canada, where they put gravy on french fries.

I thought you had to ask for the poutine treatment to get that up there? I've bought GREAT fries from french fry trucks that drive around like Good Humor trucks down here, dispensing kickass french fries. Of course, malt vinegar is commonly available along with ketchup for those that don't want them straight up.

gleam wrote:My wife eats hot dogs with ketchup on them.

I stopped by a place called Elliott's Pizza on Kostner and Augusta yesterday, first time I'd been there. I just ordered a hotdog to go w/everything, as I had to beat feet. Imagine my surprise and disgust to find that it had ketchup, mustard, onion, and relish on it, gag. No peppers. Also, the bun was not steamed, and it was placed in a large styrofoam box without being wrapped up, so all of the ingredients were all over the inside of the box instead of on the sandwich. Never again.

saps wrote:I'm always fascinated by the concept that doing it is just plain wrong to put ketchup on a hot dog or a polish in a roll. Who determines these rules?

It's not that you can't have a polish in a roll, it's that you can't call it a Maxwell Street Polish. Nor can a Chicago-style dog have ketchup.

although personally, I think ketchup is gross. so yeah, that's just wrong.

Cogito wrote:

gleam wrote:To be fair, I imported her from canada, where they put gravy on french fries.

I thought you had to ask for the poutine treatment to get that up there? I've bought GREAT fries from french fry trucks that drive around like Good Humor trucks down here, dispensing kickass french fries. Of course, malt vinegar is commonly available along with ketchup for those that don't want them straight up.

For the poutine treatment they add cheese curds and gravy, but gravy alone is a fairly common condiment. My wife's family has been known to stop by kfc for gravy to go if they got fries at a place that doesn't offer gravy themselves (e.g. McDonald's outside of quebec)

Hi, I'm new to LTH Forum. I hope I'll be welcome here.

Just my two cents on the polish on a bun vs. roll issue:

Some people simply cannot eat seeded buns, for different reasons. And it's not practical to get a seeded bun, and knock off all the little seeds.

Some people -- including myself -- prefer a less squishy bread product to go with the more substantial texture of a polish (as opposed to a hot dog). If the sausage is up to snuff, I feel it deserves a tastier bread product. Gonnella bread rolls have both better flavor and texture than poppy seed rolls.

I won't call it a "Maxwell" though.

Alice S. wrote:Some people simply cannot eat seeded buns, for different reasons.

Besides allergies, are there any other reasons?

Besides allergies, there are some digestive conditions (IBD, e.g.) that preclude ingesting seeds and nuts.

Also, some people with certain dental work find getting the seeds stuck in their teeth rather painful.

Some Chicago stands create their own their version of a traditional Chicago style hot dog. Gene & Judes doesn't use poppy seed buns, pickles, tomato, or celery salt. Super Dawg uses a pickled green tomato. and Byron's uses lettuce.

Cogito wrote:

gleam wrote:My wife eats hot dogs with ketchup on them.

I stopped by a place called Elliott's Pizza on Kostner and Augusta yesterday, first time I'd been there. I just ordered a hotdog to go w/everything, as I had to beat feet. Imagine my surprise and disgust to find that it had ketchup, mustard, onion, and relish on it, gag. No peppers. Also, the bun was not steamed, and it was placed in a large styrofoam box without being wrapped up, so all of the ingredients were all over the inside of the box instead of on the sandwich. Never again.

Okay, I'm not going to get going on the catsup thing (again), but if you ask for a dog with everything, wouldn't you expect at least mustard, onion and relish?

Cogito wrote:I stopped by a place called Elliott's Pizza .

I think having the word Pizza in it's name might be a hint not to order the hotdog.

David Hammond wrote:Okay, I'm not going to get going on the catsup thing (again), but if you ask for a dog with everything, wouldn't you expect at least mustard, onion and relish?

Sure, that's what I did expect, plus perhaps a couple sport peppers, pickle slice, or tomato. I just did not expect ketchup to be included. I don't know of any decent hotdog joints that include ketchup as part of "everything" without explicit instructions to do so. Jimmy's, Portillo's, Wolfy's, whatever, don't give ketchup by default. I'll admit I made an assumption that I shouldn't have made, but I probably won't do that again soon when going to an unknown place.

gp60004 wrote:

Cogito wrote:I stopped by a place called Elliott's Pizza .

I think having the word Pizza in it's name might be a hint not to order the hotdog.

I suppose so, but I have sort of come to take a few things for granted in life, one of them being that in Chicago, ketchup is an option on a hotdog, not a normal ingredient.

Cogito wrote:

gp60004 wrote:

Cogito wrote:I stopped by a place called Elliott's Pizza .

I think having the word Pizza in it's name might be a hint not to order the hotdog.

I suppose so, but I have sort of come to take a few things for granted in life, one of them being that in Chicago, ketchup is an option on a hotdog, not a normal ingredient.

I can do one better. I was at Harry's Hot Dog at Randolph and Franklin about two years ago, ordered a dog with everything on it, and I literally got everything, including ketchup. Times have changed, it seems. You can no longer expect "everything on it" not to include ketchup.

chicagostyledog wrote:This isn't the first incident Portillo's had with their Polish. A few years ago, they dropped Vienna Beef and sold Bobak's Polish for a while, before switching back to Vienna Beef.

A neighbor of mine worked at one in the south suburbs a couple years ago and said they also changed the hot dogs from Vienna to Bobak's. A few months after he left they changed again and now use something that's not very good at all. Any ideas what brand they are using now?