Chicagoland area businesses are celebrating the new Pope and capitalizing on his connection to the city by selling merchandise and even putting a special twist on popular menu items.
Portillo’s is honoring the new Pope with its classic Italian beef sandwich and calling it “The Leo” for the month of May.
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WATCH HERE“We're just thrilled and proud that someone from our great city was elevated to this wonderful position and we just wanted to pay homage to that and celebrate together with the rest of Chicago," said Bruce Lemasurier, Portillo’s Market Manager.
The restaurant said the divinely seasoned Italian beef is baptized with gravy, finished with the holy trinity and that it’s all done in good fun.
“The beef roasted four hours. We use this wonderful spice gravy that we have and then it’s double dipped so we're kind of baptizing it twice,” he said.
At Bennison's Bakery in Evanston, Hector Martinez is busy making pope cookies.
“In the morning, I made four dozen when we started to open the store, people come and make a line for the cookies,” Martinez said.
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The sugar cookie to commemorate the pope is dipped in sprinkles and icing with an edible image of him waving from the Vatican balcony in his first appearance in the world.
“I'm not Catholic, but I was so excited that an American first of all was chosen, then somebody from Chicago, then somebody from Dolton. My wife is from Dolton, my sister in law’s family is from Dolton,” said Jory Downer, Bennison’s Bakery Owner.
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SIGN UP The family-owned bakery started selling the cookies on Thursday and sold six dozen. So far, the bakery has made more than 300 cookies to fill orders in person and online.
The owner told NBC Chicago they had to get in on the fun.
“We kind of take advantage of every opportunity we get to sell some cookies,” said Downer. “He's not doing as well as Taylor Swift did, but all in all it's worth the effort.”
Other merchandise like t-shirts, have flooded the internet.
Obvious Shirts with a storefront in Wrigleyville is accepting pre-orders online for its Pope Leo XIV Collection, featuring shirts with phrases like 'Da Pope' for Bears fans and ‘Sweet Pope Chicago 14' to represent the Southside.
