Pilot Pete's - Schaumburg, IL

Pilot Pete's is a cool airport restaurant.  It is in the terminal building at Schaumburg Regional Airport (06C) in Schaumburg, Illinois.  There is a bank of windows that overlook the airport and the only runway from the second story.  The restaurant is chock full of aviation memorabilia, signed photos of famous aviators and lots of model airplanes everywhere.

I dined under a real experimental airplane called a breezy because the two occupants sit out in the open wind in this airplane.  I've seen breezy's before but I never had the vantage point and the time to sit there and examine the quality of the welds and the design of the airframe.  I wonder how well this one worked in it's life in the air because the Continental O-200 engine looks like a pull-type that would be in the nose of Cessna or Piper but in this configuration it was in a pusher configuration whereby the engine faced backwards, pushing the air back.  The carburetor intake was also facing backwards.  hmm... Maybe it's better hanging from a restaurant ceiling.

The food was pretty good, too.  I got the Turbulence Salad and a Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy beer.  The shandy is a summer time beer.  It is a mix of beer and lemonade, I think.  Very light, sweet and citrusy.  The salad was a mix of lettuce, onion, cheese, chicken and peperoni all chopped and tossed.  It didn't need any dressing.  I think that there might have been some oil and vinegar added to give it some moisture.   It was all very good.

Service was fine.  They were very busy but the hostess and waitress were both very nice and efficient.  No complaints.  

This place had not been featured on the Food Network but, it had potential.  Just reading over the menu, it looked like they had some creative stuff. One thing that looked interesting was the Grilled Salmon Club.  They described it as "salmon, bacon, tomato, avocado and tomato-chive aioli on Italian Bread."  Guy might like it here.

The atmosphere was pretty lively for a Tuesday evening.  There was a bar area that looked pretty cool.  The only cooler airport bar that I can think of was at the US Navy Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida where they had shipped the old officer's club bar from Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean back to Florida and completely reconstructed it.

I rated Pete's a 9.5.  This is a must for the aviation nerd in your family if you are in the Chicago area. 

Pilot Pete's Restaurant
905 West Irving Park Road
Schaumburg, IL 60193
(847) 891-5100
http://pilot-petes.com/

Portillos - Schaumburg, IL

Maybe it was the cake shake that sent me into a diabetic convulsion that caused me to fall in love with this place.  Maybe cake shake is "love potion No. 9."

Portillos was not shown on the food network by Guy but, he would have been comfortable here.  Guy needs to start paying me finder's fees for all of the non-DDD goodies that I'm coming up with all over the country.

Actually, I was introduced to portillos by a local coworker from Chicago.   I liked it here so much that I ended up going back three times in the same week.  Thank goodness that I am done working in Chicago for a while.  Otherwise, I would have to find a magician cardiologist to keep me alive.  This is not health food; nothing here is.  What it is, is good Chicago style comfort food.

Portillos is a local chain.  I went to the one in Shaumburg, Illinois.  It is popular with the locals.  They even have the local police managing traffic outside every weekday.

My first time in Portillo's was a guided dining experience. I was advised to get the "Chicago-Style Hotdog."  When in Rome, do like the Romans do.  I thought that it was a little odd that they would call it Chicago-style when I was in Chicago.  But, no matter.  Chicago-style meant that they served it on a poppy seed hotdog bun with peppers, onion and slices of whole tomatoes.  The french fries were very good; not greasy or too salty but, I don't think that they got the memo about switching over to vegetable oil from animal based oil.

The serving style was old-time fast food, wrapped in waxy paper and drinks out of a styrofoam cup.  So, it is neither healthy nor environmentally friendly. 

If the design criteria was comfort food then it hit the mark right on the spot.  We all had to hit the Starbucks on the way back to work in order to keep our eyes open afterwards.

The service was cafeteria style but, the people still managed to give friendly, fast-paced service.  The restaurant was shooting for a 50's diner / aviation theme which was right up my alley.  I was here before Christmas and they had a Santa in a  model airplane pulling a "Eat at Portillos" banner behind him on the ceiling.

I tried to eat a little bit healthier when I went back.  I had the hallibut sandwich and the salmon sandwich.  Both were as good as the hotdog.  There was copious amounts of some kind of creamy sauce that was probably worse than just eating the hot dog with the vegetables.  Still solid comfort food.

I would rate Portillos a 9.0 on my triple-D scale. 

Portillo's Hot Dogs
611 E Golf Rd, Schaumburg, IL
(847) 884-9020
portillos.com