Chain Lightning

Portillo’s, 4200 S Cooper St, Arlington. 682-318-9015. 10:30am-10:30pm Sun-Thu, 10:30am-11pm Fri-Sat.

From a single hot dog stand in Chicago in 1963, Portillo’s has kind of become Big Hot Dog, with 70 locations in several states. Now including Texas, Arlington specifically and not too far from my house.

The chain’s legendary Chi-style dogs (lots of vegetables, some of which may not belong on a hot dog) and Italian beefs (a slightly soggy sandwich with au jus instead of ’cue sauce) were enough of a draw that my family visited a Portillo’s in 2018 when my daughter’s ice-skating team competed in Chicago. The bonus of those large Midwestern rinks was experiencing exotic-to-us varieties of meat prepared in unusual ways. The all-beef dogs, the Italian beefs on crusty French bread, and the chocolate shakes were certainly memorable. Five years later, a Portillo’s sign went up in my neighborhood, and when the place opened last month, it was too tempting.

Due to the initial mob scene for dining in, we ordered online. The all-beef hot dog with a pepper-heavy giardiniera, mustard, and a little onion was absolute nostalgia on a poppyseed bun. The snap of the casing and the mouthfeel of the beefy dog surrounded by the exotically, sweetly hot peppers –– there’s nothing like it outside of Portillo’s.

We were equally pleased by the Italian beef –– thinly sliced meat with roasted sweet peppers on thick French bread dipped in au jus that the Midwesterners call “gravy.” The sandwich tastes fresh enough that you could believe the beef was roasted on-site, though it probably wasn’t.

The chocolate shake was diet-busting deliciousness, and a small one was plenty to share. The onion rings are not tempura-light here but more solid, salty, and delicious than average. Unfortunately, the plant-based hot dog didn’t taste like much of anything even with all the sweet and spicy peppers and some onions added. Still, we were pleased with dinner at this franchise.

It seems like all that’s being planted in Arlington right now is chains. Nothing in the Texas Live! complex except Lockhart Smokehouse is locally owned. There are plenty of home-grown restaurants within five miles of the mega-entertainment center, but they score from your pre-game dining dollars only if you plan well. And while franchises employ people just like locally owned restaurants do, the Small Business Administration estimates that when you spend $100 at a local business, $48 of that stays in the local community, so Tarrant County benefits in intangible ways.

Of course, this is the time of year when food writers traditionally mourn the restaurants that did not survive –– and the 2023 list is a doozy. In Arlington, we lost JR Bentley’s, the perpetually sticky-floored bar beloved by UTA undergrads and alums, and we almost had to say goodbye to Smoke’N Ash when co-owners Fasicka and Patrick Hicks moved their restaurant to a larger space and were nearly allegedly torpedoed by a contractor. You can still get your injera bread nachos at the new location (5904 S Cooper St, Ste 110, 817-385-9975).

Fort Worth’s Tre Mogli, Zonk Burger, Beast and Co., and Boozie’s all succumbed to the sad statistic that 60% of new restaurants fail within their first 12-15 months. Stalwarts Amy’s Restaurant on the North Side, the century-old Original Mexican Eats Café on Camp Bowie, Shinjuku Station on Magnolia, Lola’s on Berry Street (equally great hot dogs), and Twilite Lounge (killer po’boys) on South Main also shut down, and whether the reason was greedy landlords or a lack of local support, the closures hit many of us in the feels or the empty places in our stomachs where a guisado de Puerco lunch platter or some chicken kaarage would have fit perfectly. Lola’s and Twilite were predeceased by 38 and Vine, and all three were places I’d visited once or twice and liked but never made it back.

Other changes: Ober Here shuttered their brick-and-mortar restaurant, although there are rumors the food truck is still running, and the semi-legendary Edelweiss German Restaurant left their tricky traffic circle location but may pop up someplace else in town.

There have been some seemingly magical resurrections for local restaurant owners. La Onda was revived as Hotel Revel’s in-house restaurant (1165 8th Av). Four Sisters — A Taste of Vietnam reopened in Mansfield (3806 E Broad St, Ste 124, 817-225-2075), and Pulido’s – when was the last time you went to Pulido’s? –– will be saved by the Westland Restaurant Group, which apparently has a real soft spot for mom-and-pop (or abuelita-and-abuela) joints.

But what does this all have to do with Portillo’s? At a chain restaurant, you can reasonably assume the food’s going to taste the same wherever you go –– from Chicago to Arlington to Iowa. When our local Portillo’s opened, the food tasted just like it did when my family and I visited Second City in 2018. On our second Arlington trip about five weeks later, there were obvious glitches in the mechanics of the drive-thru, and the dogs just didn’t taste as good. It’s possible our second stop coincided with the exodus of the corporate staff — because how long can corporate stay to make sure things run smoothly (and taste great)? If Portillo’s plans to take over the world in 2024, they’ve got a little work to do. I’m not saying that everything’s perfect at our independent eateries either, but if you’re actively mourning Shinjuku, Amy’s, Lola’s, or the Original, make it up to them by supporting the local bars and restaurants we have left this new year.

Portillo’s
Portillo’s all-beef hot dog $3.89
Italian beef sandwich $7.59
Chocolate shake $3.89