Mega drive-throughs explain everything wrong with American cities

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

Is it any good? Looking at the menu, if I were to go to one, I think I'd get the chopped salad.

It's Chicago junk food - Italian beef, dogs, polishes, etc.

I guess you could order a salad there, but I have no idea why anyone would.

It'd be like going to a bonafide pizzeria and ordering their sushi. Who does that?

Originally Posted by sopas ej

Looking at the name, in my head I'm pronouncing it "Por-TEE-yos." Is that how it's pronouned? Or is it "Por-TILL-os"?

It's named after its founder, Dick Portillo, who pronounces his last name the American way: por-TILL-oh

So that's what most people call it.

But now that Chicago is 1/3 Latino, I do hear the Spanish pronunciation of the name from time to time too.

[Doady]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

She was certainly on to something. Drive-thrus impose so many costs on the environment: pollution, congestion, and sheer ugliness.

Welcome to Truck Whorton's

...

I live a block away from a Wendy's/Tim Hortons drive-through and sometimes there is garbage everywhere. The front lawns of the houses across the street are literally covered with fast food wrappings and cups. This is an older establishment so it is still allowed to operate, but a drive-through would not be allowed at that location today.

The drive-through epitomizes everything that is wrong with the suburban lifestyle, so much so that the Queen of Sprawl herself got so sick of them and eventually had them effectively banned from her so-called city.

[Crawford]

Portillos has to be Italian, no? In Italian you pronounce double-l like in English, so it wouldn't be Por-TEE-Yo.

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by JManc

Five Tim Horton's in Houston with two more opening up in the next few months.

Dear God, America is being infected
If it was 1980s-1990s Tim Hortons it would be fine. 2020s is a Frankenstein chain with terrible coffee, donuts, food
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rest..._International

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Portillos has to be Italian, no? In Italian you pronounce double-l like in English, so it wouldn't be Por-TEE-Yo.

As far as I can tell, Dick Portillo is half Mexican, half Greek . But when you serve Italian Beef, people probably assume you're Italian (not to mention the presence of the co-located Barnelli's Pasta Bowl...).

Their best item is of course the chocolate cake shake.

[Doady]

Originally Posted by Wigs

Dear God, America is being infected
If it was 1980s-1990s Tim Hortons it would be fine. 2020s is a Frankenstein chain with terrible coffee, donuts, food
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rest..._International

Even with Krispy Kreme 15 minutes walk from here, I still kind of miss the old Tim Hortons. If Tim Hortons takes over USA, and Canadian doughnuts become the only option there, that would be sad.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

Zero in Chicago as well.

Kalamazoo appears to have the closest tim hortons to us.

Never had it.


But we do have ~85 billion dunkins, so.........

I'm surprised that Tim Horton's hasn't invaded Chicago. They must have gotten spooked by their expansion into NYC which was mostly a flop.

[Crawford]

NYC seems to be a Dunkin town much moreso than Tim Hortons. The NE Corridor is thick with Dunkin everywhere.

They're both equally awful, IMO.

There's a Dunkin not too far from me, and I see the truck drop off the frozen trays of donuts early in the AM. Prolly trucked in from some giant industrial bakery 100 miles away.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

I'm surprised that Tim Horton's hasn't invaded Chicago. They must have gotten spooked by their expansion into NYC which was mostly a flop.

Dunkin might just be too entrenched here for them to want to have a go at Chicago.

With 220 locations just in the city alone (probably close to 1,000 in the MSA), Chicago has more Dunkin locations than any other city in country.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by Doady

Even with Krispy Kreme 15 minutes walk from here, I still kind of miss the old Tim Hortons. If Tim Hortons takes over USA, and Canadian doughnuts become the only option there, that would be sad.

I would be cheering on Tim Horton's if it were the Tim Horton's of the 1970s-early 1990s, not the Rim Whoreton's peddling Frankenfood (and a very small selection of reheated donuts) and lousy coffee of today.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

With 220 locations just in the city alone (probably close to 1,000 in the MSA), Chicago has more Dunkin locations than any other city in country.

Wow, really? I'd think NYC would have the largest number, and Boston would have largest market share. Dunkin seems everywhere on Eastern seaboard. But maybe it's Chicagoland.

[Steely Dan]

^ this source says it's Chicago at #1 with 220, and NYC at #2 with 177.

https://hasdata.com/brand-reports/dunkin-donuts

Originally Posted by Crawford

They're both equally awful, IMO.

Dunkin's donuts are clearly mediocre at best.

But their coffee is perfectly fine for me.

And a really good value compared to most "fancy" coffee places, IMO (and I LOVE a bargain).


But 99% of the time I drink homebrew drip, either at the office, or our home on the weekends, so......

#notacoffeesnob

[wwmiv]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Portillos has to be Italian, no? In Italian you pronounce double-l like in English, so it wouldn't be Por-TEE-Yo.

This is untrue. In many Italian regional dialects the double ll is pronounced as a hard L (somewhere between an English L and an English D) and the standard is a lengthening of the English L sound to provide emphasis. It is never the short Spanish yeismo/lleismo nor the English short L.

What is true is that Portillos is pronounced a thoroughly American Por-till-ohs.

[Crawford]

Just googling, I see 135 outlets in Brooklyn and 92 in the Bronx. I gotta think NYC has the largest N, just due to population size. Dunkin seems most culturally entrenched in Boston area, so I'd imagine they have the highest share.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

^ this source says it's Chicago at #1 with 220, and NYC at #2 with 177.

https://hasdata.com/brand-reports/dunkin-donuts

Wait, I just saw that they broke up NYC by borough for some reason.

NYC is #1(~500), followed by Chicago #2 (220), and Boston at #3 (73).


Per capita:

Boston: 1 Dunkin per ~9,000 people
Chicago: 1 Dunkin per ~12,500 people
NYC: 1 Dunkin per ~17,000 people

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

^ this source says it's Chicago at #1 with 220, and NYC at #2 with 177.

https://hasdata.com/brand-reports/dunkin-donuts

They split the boroughs into different cities on this link. New York here refers to just Manhattan.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

^ this source says it's Chicago at #1 with 220, and NYC at #2 with 177.

https://hasdata.com/brand-reports/dunkin-donuts

I suspect it's a locale search, so NYC, as a (post office) locale will be Manhattan only, so it's accurate Chicago (as PO descriptor) has more.

But a NYC total would include searches for New York, Brooklyn, Bronx, Riverdale, Staten Island, Flushing, Long Island City & Jamaica, among others. I just did Brooklyn + Bronx alone and got a lot more.

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

Dunkin's donuts are clearly mediocre at best.

But their coffee is perfectly fine for me.

I don't drink coffee, but I'm guessing coffee is really the main business at both Dunkin and Tim's. And, yeah, Dunkin coffee has its fans.

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

It's Chicago junk food - Italian beef, dogs, polishes, etc.

I guess you could order a salad there, but I have no idea why anyone would.

It'd be like going to a bonafide pizzeria and ordering their sushi. Who does that?

Well, when I go to Habit Burger Grill and Farmer Boys (IMO an underrated SoCal burger/sandwich place that started in the Inland Empire), I get their salads, because they're good, and filling. I also like Farmer Boys' wraps.

https://www.habitburger.com/

https://www.farmerboys.com/

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

Well, when I go to Habit Burger Grill and Farmer Boys (IMO an underrated SoCal burger/sandwich place that started in the Inland Empire), I get their salads, because they're good, and filling. I also like Farmer Boys' wraps.

I imagine there are thousands of places in SoCal to get really good salads.

Personally, I would never go out of my way to go to a fast food place like Portillo's, that specializes in a very specific and somewhat unique style of food (outside of Chicagoland), just to order a rather generic chopped salad.

But that's just me.

You do you.



But if you wanna do Portillo's right, go there and order a beef and sausage combo with hot giardiniera and a cake shake, and let your digestive system hate you later.

[JManc]

In Boston, you can be in one Dunkin Donuts, look out the window and see two other Dunkin Donuts.