Just a couple years ago, the Portillo’s restaurant chain was hot stuff. “The Bear,” a TV drama that began with life behind the counter of an Italian beef stand in Chicago, had given this beefy local favorite an opening to go national — or so its executives thought.

Focusing on Illinois, they maintained, would limit them. The state wasn’t growing like its rivals in the Sun Belt. Only by pioneering new pastures could this homegrown chain keep the beef sandwiches flowing.

Portillo’s has found out the hard way that there’s no place like home.

Its ambitious plan of just two years ago to expand from roughly 80 outlets to an eye-popping 920 has run aground. The stock has plunged from a once-lofty peak, leadership has turned over at the top, and the max-growth strategy has fallen apart like a b

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