An unlikely contender in the recent wave of Instagrammable pop-up experiences, Portillo's has opened their own pop-up in Woodfield Mall. While not as aesthetic as Happy Place and definitely not as high-brow as WNDR, it's still a silly, fun place to drop into and take some stupid pictures with friends if you're in the area. It's definitely not a thing you should travel to Woodfield for if you don't live in the area, but worth 5-10 minutes of your time if you're already doing some Christmas shopping. Most importantly, the experience is FREE so there's really no additional investment besides your time and a few megabytes off your phone storage.
The pop-up is a small location with Portillo's merchandise in the front and then the exhibits in the back. While they have a few frozen food items and chocolate cakes for sale, please don't be expecting to get your dipped Italian beef sandwich here because this is not actually a restaurant. The merch is fine but not really appealing to anyone other than tourists and hardcore Portillo's fans, aside from this adorable dachshund plushie wearing a Portillo's shirt? Get it? It's a wiener dog. I instantly bought it for my girlfriend to add to her Christmas gift. I really hope she doesn't read this before then.
You're probably coming here to learn about the exhibits, so I'll get right to it. The exhibits are pretty silly, but what can you expect from a freaking Portillo's pop-up? They are beautiful in the irony of their existence and how they subvert more popular and well-known pop-ups like the aforementioned Happy Place and WNDR. You'll be taking pictures inside a mirrored room reminiscent of Yayoi Kusama's infinity Room, but with yellow tinges and french fries. Everywhere. There's smaller stalls with other installations such as a cosmic onion room, a hot dog bun where YOU are the hot dog, and a giant fork with toppings hanging from the ceiling. It is almost surreal how ridiculous the exhibits are but they are enjoyable, even for just a few moments. While the main installations are cool such as the onion ring and hot dog bun sculptures, the other additions to the exhibits are a bit low in production quality. For example, the In-fry-nity Room has tiny little french fries glued to the mirrored walls, but they are so sparse that it looks kind of empty. You can probably make the exhibits look fuller with the proper angle and filters, and you can't expect too much from a free exhibit, but that's probably my only complaint about the place.
Don't expect to get any Instagram clout from this place unless you're comfortable making fun of yourself. The Portillo's experience is only up for a few more days so come through if you're in the area. Have fun and don't take yourself too seriously, because Portillo's clearly isn't taking anything seriously with this pop-up. I had fun! You should too. read more