Chicago — Portillo’s, the fast-casual restaurant brand known for its menu of Chicago-style favorites, has named Jennifer Pecoraro-Striepling as chief development officer. She joins Portillo’s from Miller’s Ale House.
In this role, Pecoraro-Striepling will lead Portillo’s restaurant development strategy, including real estate and site selection, prototype design and construction. She will play a key role in advancing Portillo’s long term expansion as the company continues to grow its footprint while preserving the brand’s unique guest experience and operational excellence.
“Jennifer brings the experience, strategic vision and people-first leadership we need as we continue to expand Portillo’s into new and key markets,” says Brett Patterson, Portillo’s president and CEO. “We see tremendous opportunity ahead, and Jennifer’s proven ability to responsibly scale brands while protecting what makes them special gives us great confidence in our ability to accelerate growth and bring Portillo’s to even more communities.”
Pecoraro-Striepling brings more than 25 years of experience in large-scale restaurant development and global restaurant growth for leading multi-unit restaurant and retail brands. Her experience includes developing and implementing multiple restaurant prototypes, introducing smaller and more efficient footprints, improving operational flow and driving improved construction costs and development timelines. Most recently, she served as chief development officer for Miller’s Ale House, where she was responsible for driving the enterprise development and market-driven expansion strategies for disciplined, scalable execution. Prior to Miller’s, she held leadership roles at Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux, Papa Johns, Bloomin’ Brands, Kohl’s and Darden Restaurants.
Portillo’s is a one-of-a-kind brand that has grown from a small hot dog trailer in Chicago to more than 100 restaurants across 11 states.
SOURCE: Portillo’s