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www.OurPortillos.com

NEW UPDATE- 5-8-14 .: Chicago Tribune covers Mr. Dick Portillo's personal response: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-portillos-crowdfund-ownership-20140507,0,4150711.story

UPDATE- 5-6-14 .: Chicago Tribune covered our campaign this morning: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-campaign-forms-to-keep-portillos-locally-owned-20140506,0,33920.story

The owner of local eatery Portillo’s, a.k.a. home of the world’s best Chicago-style hot dog, is looking to sell its fast-food division and the corporate vultures are circling.

I am attempting to start a movement to keep Portillo's local and buy the company from the one-and-only Mr. Dick Portillo! [[HYPERLINK: Crowdtilt Campaign https://www.crowdtilt.com/campaigns/keep-portillos-locally-owned]]

As anyone who’s been there knows, Portillo’s is a Chi-Town institution. I’ve been going there since I was 5 years old, and I remember first being bowled over by the 1920s- and Prohibition-era décor, and then by the FOOD. We’re talking huge Chicago-style hot dogs, Italian beef with mozz and peppers, cheese fries and ice cold Coke. Top it all off with a malt or an amazing chocolate cake shake, and you’re in heaven.

We want to keep Portillo's ownership local, here in Chicago. We will transform the company into a publicly-held nonprofit corporation. We'd elect a Board of Directors, have an Executive Committee, and set it up like the Green Bay Packers organization. I know, I know, we're not Packers fans, but their structure has worked for them since 1928.

If we could buy it, we would do 3 important things:

Preserve the QUALITY of the food by protecting against corporate franchising Immortalize the BRAND and PORTILLO name for centuries to come Reinvest net profits back into CHICAGOLAND

Please condsider joining and making a contribution at this link: https://www.crowdtilt.com/campaigns/keep-portillos-locally-owned

With love,

EVS

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Each share will be sold for $50.00 - with an initial 6,000,000 shares being sold. This gets us to a $300 million purchase price for Mr. Portillo. We are limiting any one shareholder to a total of 180,000 shares, so no one person can gain controlling interest.

Shareholders do not receive any dividend on the investment. All dividends and profits will be reinvested in the organization and distributed to the community's schools, nonprofits, and other civic and social organizations - to continue making Chicago great.