Uno Chicago Grill

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The interior of the Pizzeria Uno in Harmon Meadow Plaza in Secaucus, New Jersey.

Chicago-style deep dish pizza from the original Pizzeria Uno location.

Uno Chicago Grill, formerly known as Pizzeria Uno or more informally as Uno's, is the title for a franchised pizzeria restaurant chain under the parent company Uno Restaurant Holdings Corporation. The first Uno's was established in 1943 by former University of Texas football star Ike Sewell and his friend, former WW II G.I. Rick Ricardo, in the River North neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois.^[1] While Sewell and Ricardo are known as the owners of the original restaurant, a 1956 article from the Chicago Daily News asserts that the original recipe was created by chef Rudy Malnati.

Today the Uno Restaurant Holdings Corporation is based in Boston, Massachusetts, where the Uno brand was first franchised in 1979. Ironically, the restaurant chain does not have a major presence in the Chicago Metropolitan Area, with only four locations in the region excluding the original Uno and Due restaurants in River North.

The company began franchising in 1980^[2] As of 2005 the chain has 216 restaurants, with 85 franchises and 128 company-owned restaurants in 32 U.S. states. Franchises are also located in Puerto Rico, South Korea, United Arab Emirates and Pakistan.

Uno's also owns two additional restaurants, Pizzeria Due opened in 1955 after the great popularity of the original restaurant. Due's is located just a block north of the original Chicago location. In 1965 Ike Sewell then opened Su Casa, an upscale mexican restauant and the company's only mexican restaurant. Su Casa is located next to Pizzeria Due and the original ^[3]. location Entrepreneur magazine ranked it 174th in 2003 and 252nd in 2006 in the magazine's list of the top 500 franchises.

In addition to the traditional Uno restaurants, Uno offers a limited menu (predominately their pizzas) at stadiums, service plazas and airports. Also, Uno-branded pizzas, both thin-crust and deep-dish, are available in both fresh and frozen forms in many supermarkets in the United States.

1 Format changes
2 Thinzettas
3 Franchising
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Format changes

The original Pizzeria Uno on Ohio Street in Chicago's River North neighborhood

Pizzeria Due on Ontario Street.

Pizzeria Uno and Due one block apart.

Starting in 1994,^[4], Uno broadened its menu to encompass other dishes. Uno's kitchens were updated, adding sauté stations, grills and fryers, and invested heavily in training.^[4]^[1]

In 1996, the franchise's beverage list was expanded, and by 1999 so was the portion size, reflecting a trend seen in the industry where customers are buying fewer but larger drinks.^[4] New locations were larger and featured a "Chicago warehouse" look.^[4]^[1]

In 1997, Pizzeria Uno changed its name to Pizzeria Uno, Chicago Bar & Grill; it later simplified the name to Uno Chicago Grill.

The menu, updated again in 2005, still includes several of the restaurant's traditional specialties, particularly its deep dish pizza.^[1] In the tradition of Chicago's speakeasies, more attention is paid to the bar. Uno's drink list features a dozen wines and a number of specialty drinks, including frozen, mixed and nonalcoholic options.^[1]

The expanded menu and format changes were not made at the company's original downtown Chicago locations (Pizzeria Uno and Pizzeria Due).^[5]

[edit] Thinzettas

A complaint filed in April 1997 by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) alleged "unfair or deceptive acts or practices, and the making of false advertisements"^[6]. The complaint quoted examples in which Uno's Thinzettas were characterized as being low in fat. The FTC's complaint stated:

"In most cases respondents' Thinzettas thin crust pizzas are not low in fat. Six out of nine types of Thinzettas thin crust pizzas contained from 14 to 36 grams of fat per serving at the time of dissemination of the advertisements^[6].

The complaint was resolved by a consent order,^[7] which required them to cease this practice, and for 20 years maintain records about their advertisements and "materials relied upon" for the claims in their ads. The company must also keep "tests, reports, studies, surveys, demonstrations, or other evidence" that "contradict, qualify, or call into question" the representations made in their ads.^[7]