Portillo's launches breakfast menu at select Chicago area locations

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Several Portillo's restaurants in the Chicago area begin serving breakfast Tuesday morning.

Portillo's says that they noticed they had customers lined up in their drive-thrus bright and early in the morning looking for food, so they thought it only made sense to test out a breakfast menu.

"This morning I said man I got to come try it," Urial Zamora said.

"We've seen all the hype about it , on the news, advertising," Caitlin Butkus of Tinley Park said.

The menu includes breakfast classics, but what's drawing a lot of buzz are the items that have a Chicago twist.

Staff at the South Loop location were hard work, serving new items including Polish sausage egg and cheese sandwiches, chocolate cake coffee, and chocolate cake donuts.

"We ordered a lot of the polish sandwiches, hashbrowns, the bacon, a lot of people have been wanting to try out the chocolate cake iced coffee which I'm excited about and I think a donut," Butkus said.

Portillos's says there has been demand from the public to have food available much earlier and in case you were wondering...Italian beef is on their breakfast menu.

"We have people at 9 a.m. ready for their Italian beef," Satra Wirth, Portillos director of PR and communications, said. There is obviously appetite for Portillo's for breakfast."

Portillo's says narrowing down what they wanted to include in their breakfast menu took some time, and they plan on having it available into the summer.

"To create the menu we really took guest feedback seriously," Wirth said. "We created a whole bunch of stuff in our test kitchen and had a diner panels. We are doing It for our guest. That's the feedback we heard, we wished you had breakfast and we got their feedback and the result is what you see.

Breakfast will be served 6:30 to 10:30 in the morning at the five locations. If the breakfast menu is a hit, Portillos says they will expand it to other locations.

Breakfast menu:

Breakfast Sandwiches':
-Polish Sausage, Egg & Cheese Sandwich: Scrambled eggs, Char-grilled Polish sausage, American cheese, and our signature Giardiniera sauce on toasted French bread.
-Pepper, Egg & Cheese Sandwich: Scrambled eggs, sweet peppers, American cheese, and Giardiniera sauce on toasted French bread.
-Bacon, Egg & Cheese Croissant: Scrambled eggs and crispy bacon layered with American cheese on a buttery, flaky croissant.

Stan's Donuts:
-Portillo's Chocolate Cake Donut: Portillo's teamed up with Stan's Donuts to create this chocolate old-fashioned donut dipped in chocolate glaze and drizzled with famous chocolate cake frosting, exclusively available at Portillo's.

Sides:
Loaded Breakfast Scramble: Scrambled eggs, crispy hash browns, bacon, and cheesy cheese sauce.
-Hash Brown Bites: Crispy, golden hash brown bites
-Bacon: Three slices of crispy bacon
-Fresh Fruit Cup: A refreshing mix of cantaloupe, honeydew, and pineapple.

Coffee:
Hot or Iced Metropolis Skyway blend-Fair Trade, organic, and packed with toffee and chocolate notes.
Customize it with vanilla, sugar-free vanilla, half & half, or almond milk!

SPECIALTY COFFEE
Chocolate Cake Iced Coffee: A new drink inspired by Portillo's famous Chocolate Cake, Portillo's Chocolate Cake flavor, and cream.
Vanilla Iced Coffee: Sweet or sugar-free vanilla

Other drink options:
Orange Juice
Apple Juice
Monster Energy
Milk (Regular or Chocolate)
Iced Tea (Sweet or Unsweetened)
San Pellegrino
Bottled Water
Soft Drinks

Click here for more information.