Opinion

Letter to the Editor: A historic story about Portillo's

Posted May 02, 2015 6:45 am

A historic story about Portillo's

Was fun to read the story in the April 25 Daily Herald about Helen Diekman, age 99, and her secret to her longevity, namely "Portillo's!" And how she met Dick Portillo, the founder, at the grand opening of the Elgin Portillo's in 2013.

I have a somewhat more historic story to tell. We moved to the Chicago area in the early 1960s, and we rented an apartment on West North Avenue, Route 64, in Villa Park, just west of a big strip mall on the south side of North Avenue, across the road from Syms Clothing Store. In the big parking lot in front of the strip mall was a small trailer with a "Dog House" sign across the front of it. On Saturday mornings my little boy and I would stroll over there, walk up to the trailer and the young man owning the trailer would greet us with, "Good morning, Ted, and hi there, Frankie, what will you have today?"

And I replied, "Morning, Dick, we'll have two hot dogs and loaded with everything." All right, end of story. That was the No. 1 Portillo's! Of course, today there's a fancy-Dancy blue-color dining restaurant there called "Portillo's." But it just ain't the same as the one I went to.

Ted Utchen

Wheaton

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