HOUSTON – (Realty News Report) – Portillo’s, the Chicago fan favorite hot dog chain, is building a restaurant on Houston’s east side, the latest move in its entry into the Houston market.
The fast-casual restaurant, known for its Chicago-style hot dogs, Italian beef sandwiches, hamburgers, pastas, and salads, plans to open a Baytown location in 2026. Construction on a freestanding 5,010-SF building at 5000 East Freeway is expected to begin in March, according to a filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. Completion is planned in September.
The Baytown location will be part of San Jacinto Marketplace, a mixed-use development by Fidelis Realty Partners on the site of the former San Jacinto Mall at I-10 and Garth Road. Portillo’s will join other restaurants planned at the development including Plucker’s Wing Bar and Bubba’s 33, Fidelis reports.
Portillo’s made a push to expand in the Sunbelt, entering Texas with locations in the Dallas-Fort Worth region in 2023.
The chain came to Houston last October, and has since opened locations in Richmond-Aliana, Katy, Houston-Willowbrook, Tomball, and Stafford-The Grid.
Coming Soon: Portillo’s “Restaurant of the Future”
Next up for Portillo’s – a 6,250-SF “restaurant of the future” is coming soon to Humble at 111 FM 1960 Bypass Road East near Deerbrook Mall. The store will feature indoor and outdoor dining, double drive-thru lanes, Portillo’s Pick Up Shelves, and a Grab and Go retail area.
The new Baytown Portillo’s adds to approximately 1.2 million SF of retail construction slated for delivery across the Houston area in 2025, according to commercial real estate firm Weitzman. It would mark the highest new construction since 2019.
Portillo’s was founded by Dick Portillo in a trailer in Chicago’s Villa Park suburb in 1963. Since expanding outside of Chicago in 2005, Portillo’s has grown to more than 90 restaurants across 10 states and will soon enter Georgia with a location in Atlanta. The Oak Brook, Illinois-based company went public in 2021 and trades on Nasdaq under the ticker PTLO.
