Keith Kinsley and Berkshire Partners promise to turn Portillos into a cookie cutter strip mall chain

Armando Arturo
   Keith Kinsley and noodles and Company purchased Chicago's Portillo hot dogs not too long ago and this does not bold well for this growing hotdog place. Portillo's was always known for great food and quick drive-thru service as it always seems to employee way more people than other eateries and fast-food outlets and despite the popularity there is never a long wait. I think this will change as the Portillo chain goes  more corporate now owned by hedge fund investors and Noodles and Company. Under Portillo's leadership Portillos has experienced tremendous growth and now has thirty eight locations in four states and this new ownership vows to expand Portillos to many more places around the country. whether it will remain a place that hires many people and always paid higher than prevailing food service wages remains to be seen. I hardly doubt the generous pay and benefits that Dick Portillo always ensured his workers received will now come to an end as Portillos is now under the ownership of Berkshire partners. Whenever an investing conglomerate takes over what was a small and thriving business they always fuck it up and make changes that turn off customers and changes service. Dick Portillo sold his chain for a cool billion dollars and installed Keith Kinsley as new CEO of the company. Kinsley and his corporate ilk have been proven to open new restaurants of the chain variety in selected proven neighborhoods it has been written and this mainly means strip mall locations in upper scale neighborhoods. It is the likes of CEOs like Keith Kinsley who get to decide whether restaurants should be in inappropriate  high minority neighborhoods and as is so often the case you will not find many of these chains in black and Latino neighborhoods. Kinsley had served as operations leadership roles of both Noodles and Chipolte and both of these crummy locations are cookie cutter uniformity chains and both the opposite of what Portillos always has been with its unique places. I don't think two Portillos was ever the same but this will change as a corporate takeover of this great eatery will just have the bland sameness that is Noodles and Chipolte whose popularity is just based on key intersections and spots where there are not many alternatives for lunch.