ALLEN, Texas — Portillo's was - and still is - a hit when it opened in The Colony earlier this year, bringing its Chicago-inspired Italian beef and hot dogs to North Texas.
Now the company is gearing up for a second location here. Literally.
Portillo's will bring its "Beef Bus" to Allen on Tuesday, July 25, through Aug. 12. The bus, which will offer customers a sneak preview of the Portillo's menu, will be located at The Hampton Inn at 830 West Stacy Road.
The bus will be promoting the Portillo's Allen location, which is set to open sometime this year, just south of the Allen outlet mall.
The bus will be open Tuesdays through Saturdays, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. The menu will include Portillo's Chicago-style hot dogs, a mini version of its Italian beef sandwich, Italian and Maxwell Street Polish sausages and Portillo's crinkle-cut fries.
And if you're interested in working at Portillo's Allen location, the bus will host job interviews, which include a voucher for a free meal.
Portillo's debuted in North Texas when it opened in The Colony on Jan. 18. And North Texans took to it quickly, as the 7,900-square-foot location raked in $48,000 of revenue per day, on average, according to the company's first-quarter earnings call.
Portillo's is a publicly-traded company ($PTLO) on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
The Colony location was Portillo's top location in the country when it opened to much fanfare in January.
"This means it's been matching the volumes of restaurants in Chicago that have been open for decades," Portillo's CEO Michael Osanloo said on the March 2 earnings call. "Specifically, The Colony has averaged $48,000 in sales per day since the grand opening. Now, that annualizes to $17 million per year; and that's a crazy number, so please don't model that. It's definitely coming down. But we feel really good that this restaurant will significantly exceed our underwriting expectations and sets us up for further success in Texas as we continued to expand."
