Portillo’s, slinger of Chicago-style dogs, is plotting a third location in Vikings country as it continues its steady, deliberate expansion since selling to a private equity firm in 2014.
Earlier this month, the Oak Brook-based chain also known for Italian beef and chocolate cake shakes opened its first Minnesota location in Woodbury, a St. Paul suburb. Then last week, Portillo’s confirmed another location in Maple Grove, a Minneapolis suburb, while also filing an application for another location in Apple Valley.
“We are looking at several other locations throughout the greater Minneapolis-St. Paul area, including Apple Valley, but pending regulatory approvals and a signed lease, I can’t confirm (the Apple Valley location),” Portillo’s spokesman Nick Scarpino said in an email Monday.
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Documents filed with Apple Valley’s plan commission last week indicate Portillo’s hopes to open a 9,000-square-foot restaurant with its standard two-lane drive-through. Meanwhile, the lease is signed for the Maple Grove location, which is expected to open in November, Scarpino said.
When founder Dick Portillo sold the company to Berkshire Partners, a Boston-based private equity firm, the company had 38 locations. Today, there are 50 with more in the pipeline.
The plan is to continue growing the number of restaurants at a rate of about 10 to 15 percent each year, executives have said, building in the Chicago market but also in other areas with a fondness for the brand and for Chicago. Vikings fans may or may not confess to such a connection.
The Pioneer Press in Minnesota first reported the news.
Twitter @GregTrotterTrib