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Portillo's general manager joe rojas caught redhanded serving food to it's customers straight from the garbage.
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CHICAGO — A suburban couple says a popular Chicago restaurant is trying to keep them quiet after an incident that involved fast food and old garbage, Target 5 reported.
Portillo's said it simply didn't happen and the two customers in this case are just after money. Those customers said they were, in fact, offered money but only if they didn't talk to the media
"Of course I wanted to go to Portillo's — that's my favorite restaurant, " said Debbye Sottile, who went to order lunch there with her husband, Peter.
The couple said their order was simple: a salad, hamburger, hot dog and onion rings.
But then things got complicated.
In front of Debbye Sotille, a man who said Portillo's gave him the Sotilles order brought it back to the counter.
"I said, 'This is not our order, it's someone else's, '" said the man, Efrain Aguinaga.
Then, Debbye Sotille said a Portillo's employee handed her that same order.
"She went to hand me the order she had already handed somebody else, and I said, 'No, I would prefer that you remake the order because he already had it, and walked away with it, '" Debbye said.
What the Sottiles said a Portillo's manager at the Streamwood location did next is key to their complaint.
"He said, 'Fine, we'll make you a new order, ' and he took the bag and crumpled it up and he threw it in the garbage, " Debbye said.
"We saw him throw away to the garbage, " said Aguinaga. "He was mad about it."
Less than a minute later, the Sottiles said their new order was ready, but the food was cold.
"I said, 'Wait a second, if they threw out the order, how do you have a bag with the order written down on it? This is the original bag, '" Peter said. "I said, 'Why did you feed my wife food out of the garbage?'"
Their situation began to draw in the attention of other customers.
"I saw a commotion, " said customer Sandy Krueger. "The manager admitted, in front of me there, that he'd done that before, "
"It wasn't a clean bag. It was the old bag, " said Efrain.
Portillo's said at no time did any of its employees admit to serving the Sottiles or any other customers food from the trash.
"We did not serve it from the garbage. We showed the guest the original food but he didn't believe us, " said a Portillo's employee in a taped interview provided by Portillo's.
Streamwood police confirm for Target 5 the manager of Portillo's admitted to them he gave the Sottiles a bag out of the garbage, but said he put new food in it.
An health department report obtained by Target 5 included the same information.
The couple said the whole dirty debacle — reported to the police and local health department — led to an attempt by the restaurant to buy their silence.
"They came back and they said, 'We're going to give you $1,500 if you don't say anything to the media, '" Peter said.
Restaurant owner Dick Portillo said the offer was made by his insurance company and is not a sign of wrongdoing.
"It never happened, and I resent it, " Portillo said.
Portillo said his workers said the food was thrown out, not the bag, and he said the other customers were not close enough to see what happened.
He said the Sottiles are litigious and just after money.
The Sottiles did not take the offer, and have not yet filed any lawsuit.
Portillo's underwent a subsequent health department inspection, and passed with a score of 91 out of 100.
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