SOUTH LOOP — Portillo's celebration of National Hot Dog Month culminated in an adorable coronation of the internet-famous Hot Dog Princess at the restaurant chain's South Loop location.
Six-year-old Ainsley Turner, better known as the Hot Dog Princess, became a viral sensation when a teacher at North Carolina's Holly Springs School of Dance uploaded a photo of her dressed up in a hot dog costume for the school's Princess Day.
She was quickly embraced across social media, with even Ellen DeGeneres catching the #HotDogPrincess fever.
Portillo's flew Turner and her family to Chicago where they toured the city — including Navy Pier, the Field Museum and Millennium Park — and dined at, of course, Portillo's. At the restaurant, founder Dick Portillo joined Turner and crowned her "the Hot Dog Queen of Chicago."
She had a chili cheese dog, with no ketchup, of course.
"Some people have for whatever reason called me the 'Chicago Hot Dog King,' but today for a very good reason I can think of no one better to be crowned the Hot Dog Queen of Chicago," Portillo said. "By the power vested in me by the Chicago-style hot dogs and Portillo's everywhere, I crown you Hot Dog Queen of Chicago."
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