Using the drive-thru at the Portillo’s on Ogden Avenue might be a little quicker and safer the next time you find yourself craving Chocolate Cake Shake or a Big Beef.
Members of the Naperville Planning and Zoning Commission recommended Wednesday night that the Naperville City Council allow restaurant owners to install a second drive-thru lane alongside the existing one at the 950 E. Ogden Ave. business.
Officials for the Oak Brook-based Portillo’s did not attend the meeting, but told the Transportation, Engineering and Development Business department a second lane would ease the traffic congestion that occurs when cars merge into a single lane to place orders, city staff said. It will also reduce the potential for drive-through employees being injured by moving vehicles in the parking lot, they said.
The Portillo’s chain is famous for expediting service by stationing employees in the restaurants’ parking lots to take orders and payments and to deliver food that’s ready before the customer reaches the drive-through window.
The Naperville restaurant’s C-shaped, double drive-thru lane begins off Ogden Avenue and runs mostly along the restaurant’s west side parallel to Wisconsin Street, where it is reduced to one lane. It then circles around the southern end of the building and empties into a parking area to the east.
Portillo’s officials said the change would “reduce the traffic congestion that results from the double drive-thru lane merging into one lane, (while providing) a safer work environment for drive-thru employees,” according to a city memorandum.
City planners supported the idea, saying in the memo “the improvements to the site will improve (traffic) circulation” and make conditions better for employees.
Installation of new landscaping also is proposed along Wisconsin Street outside the restaurant. Planners approved of that idea as well, saying it “will help to reduce the impact and visibility of the additional drive-thru lane,” according to the memo.
Commissioners voted unanimously in support of the modifications. The City Council is expected to consider the proposal at its next meeting.
