Portillo's opens first airport restaurant at Dallas Fort Worth airport

Portillo’s first airport restaurant changes the work as much as the menu. The new unit at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, in Terminal B, uses a smaller dine-in and pick-up-only footprint, with register ordering, self-order kiosks, order-ahead pickup and a Grab & Go area built for travelers who want food fast and have little time to linger.

The restaurant opened May 27 at 2141 South International Parkway in Dallas and seats more than 50 guests, far less than a typical full-size Portillo’s dining room. It serves breakfast daily from 5:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., along with the chain’s familiar lunch and dinner lineup, including Italian Beef Sandwiches, Chicago-Style Hot Dogs, char-broiled Burgers, fries and cake. Posted hours run from 5:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. daily, a schedule that pushes crews into early mornings and late nights that are common in airport food service but still different from neighborhood units.

For hourly workers and managers, the format points to a very different rhythm on the floor. Airport restaurants face unpredictable passenger traffic, tighter security access and a higher share of guests buying food to go, which puts extra weight on ticket times, prep forecasting and cross-training. In a smaller kitchen and a narrower footprint, a mistake in labor scheduling or inventory planning can ripple quickly across the shift. That makes the model a test of whether Portillo’s can keep the line moving without turning service into a grind for the crew.

The timing also matters because Portillo’s has said Texas remains a difficult market. In a May 5 earnings discussion, management said the company opened five Texas locations through April 2026 and planned more openings, including the DFW airport site. The same quarter showed labor expense rising to 26.9% of revenue, in part because of new restaurant deleverage and 1.5% hourly wage inflation, a reminder that compact, high-throughput stores can look efficient on paper while still squeezing staffing plans on the ground.

Portillo’s is testing another reduced-footprint format in The Villages, Florida, where a new dine-in-only restaurant is planned at about 4,300 square feet with indoor and outdoor seating, a Grab & Go area, Pick Up shelves and no drive-thru. For restaurant employers, the airport opening is the clearest sign yet that the chain is experimenting with formats that could bring more openings, but also more pressure, to the people who have to staff them.