Uno Chicago Grill Files for Bankruptcy

They've closed 17 restaurants in recent months, but still deep in debt -- but it's not supposed to affect the rest of the biz. Are they at all financially affiliated with the "real" Uno's anymore? The articles don't say.

Article

None too soon, if you ask me. If there's any justice, the judge will make a condition of emerging from bankruptcy that they remove "Chicago" and probably "Uno" from the name.

According to the article in yesterday's Trib, they do own the original location.

See http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ ... 1993.story

I ended up in one of these in New Hampshire, IIRC, about a decade back. I had never seen one and wondered if it was affiliated or a knock-off. It was godawful pizza and I was surprised to learn that it was based on the original.

spinynorman99 wrote:I ended up in one of these in New Hampshire, IIRC, about a decade back. I had never seen one and wondered if it was affiliated or a knock-off. It was godawful pizza and I was surprised to learn that it was based on the original.

Correction: The logo is based on the original, the pizza is not.

Not that I love the original Uno these days but it's startling how much worse the pizza at these "grill" Unos is from the original incarnation. I ate at one so many years ago, I don't remember when it was but I do remember how horrible it was.

=R=

Uno's Grill Manager to Me Before Ordering wrote:If you're from Chicago, prepare to be disappointed.

ronnie_suburban wrote:Not that I love the original Uno these days but it's startling how much worse the pizza at these "grill" Unos is from the original incarnation. I ate at one so many years ago, I don't remember when it was but I do remember how horrible it was.

=R=

Exact same scenario here. When the server asked "How is everything "?,I pointed out how terrible it was and how it was nowhere even close to the original Uno's. The manager was called over and insisted that it was the same as the original

I used to think that Sewell never sold them the recipe, and they tried to figure it out from photographs, like a lot of non-Japanese food is in Japan.

But if they own the original Uno's, the only explanation is that they focus-grouped it into mediocrity, then adjusted their cost of goods downward to fit the business model.

I can just see the comment cards:
"I wasn't expecting cornmeal in the crust"
"Oh, that's just too much sausage"
"I don't like spicy things -- there's too much garlic in that sauce"
"What's with the chopped tomatoes? Can't you make sauce?"
"The crust is too rich and greasy"
"That doesn't taste like pizza"

Honestly, their product was so bad, it's amazing the company lasted this long.

I am sure they never intended to sell the same product as in the original. These Uno Chicago Grills are more like a Chili's or Ruby Tuesday's, but with pizza in addition to all of the bar & grill type stuff. I seems fairly clear that they wanted to make a very cheap and quick knock-off of the original. Why they didn't want to replicate the original? I can only speculate that it is more expensive to make and their research indicated that it wouldn't be as profitable. Naturally, people who like the original think this is not a good thing, but such is the world of chain restaurants.

My understanding is that a big difference between the chain and the original has to do with adjustments they made to the recipe/preparation/cooking method to cut down significantly on cooking time. People in Chicago have accepted waiting 40-50 minutes for a pizza to arrive and the brain trust at Uno's decided that the rest of the country would not do the same.