Rockford Area Portillo’s Fans, Their Lemon Cake Phenomenon Has Been Extended

If you've ever had a favorite menu item from a favorite place suddenly disappear, you can take heart in knowing that in today's world, all it takes is sharing on social media your desire for the return of that item to make it happen. Hey, it worked for one guy, why not you?

Earlier this year, Reddit user BIGBEN2010 put out a $300 bounty on the recipe for Portillo's lemon cake, a menu item that hadn't been featured for nearly a decade. He remembered it, loved it, and was so desperate that he was seriously willing to put up the money just to enjoy it again.

Portillo's social media department recognized a great opportunity to shine, and got in touch with the guy, promising him his very own lemon cake. They got him the cake, and he donated the $300 to charity. Meanwhile the whole "return of the lemon cake" went viral:

Then, this morning, we received confirmation of an extension:

Our legendary lemon cake has been so loved, that we are extending its life a little bit longer! The lemon cake will now be available through August 31st. After August, our beloved lemon cake will have to go back into retirement, at least until next year. With the holidays approaching, we only have so much space in our ovens to bake fresh cakes every morning. And, we have a LOT of chocolate cakes to bake for your hungry souls starting this September. We baked over 200,000 whole chocolate cakes from September-December last year, so we need our oven space back!

All of this hoopla over some lemon cake? Yep. I've had it, and it's totally worth all the buzz it's been getting:

• @Colieycole PSA: @portilloshotdog's Lemon Cake is all it's cracked up to be #delicious
• @DZBistro Who DOESN'T love Portillo's Cake? Welcome back Lemon!! #Portillos #ChicagoEats #getinmybelly
• @Katie_Lannon PSA: If you haven't had Portillo's lemon cake yet, I'm advising you to go get a piece
• @billyb0bcat Portillo's and their lemon cake is the love of my life 😍 #happyplace
• @ADesai410 Portillo's lemon cake wins the "best cake i've had in 2017" award. It's sooo damn good.
• @cornygirl19 Okay Portillo's lemon cake is the bomb dot com​

So, Rockford Portillo's fans, get over to the East State location and give it a try. The lemon cakes are available at all Portillo's locations except Woodbury, Minnesota, and Normal, Illinois.