UNO'S

chicago born and grew up in skokie ive had my share of uno's and lou malnati's, now in south florida and went up north today to melborn florida catching an unos sign across the street i couldnt resist, i ordered 5 large pizzas to go and brought them back home and was very disapointed, similar but not the stuff im used to. Back home unos had pizza beer soda salad, their menu here looked like tgi fridays with a half page for pizza on a 14 page menu.the crust looked machine made too,acidy tomatoes,and the sausage were in balls, never again unless im at unos or due's back home

I went to UNO's in Dayton Ohio last week and actually got an original UNO that was cold in the middle. This was not the same pie I used to get. It was on a Saturday night at 6 o'clock and the place was just about empty. I think soon they will be gone and out of business. Just another sad story of a once great place that expanded and became garbage....Russ

It is a complicated business relationship, but the original Pizzeria Uno's (and it's sister restaurant Pizzeria Due's) pizza is much different as well as much more delicious and tastier than the pizzas they attempt to clone at chain of restaurants that are now call Uno's Chicago Bar and Grill. The chain's pizza products are nowhere similar to the original, except they are made in round deep dish pans. The chain essentially has rights to the use of the term "Uno's" in their name, but they do not use the same recipe that is used at the original restaurant in Chicago. Parenthetically, there have been recent announcements of closings of many of the Uno's Chicago Bar and Grill restaurants and talk of severe financial problems for their business. They have not been as successful, unfortunately, as they had hoped.

They closed at least two UNOs here in the Columbus area after trying to switch to things other than their so-called pizza.

BTB's explanation is dead-on

It is shameful that the original allowed the use of it's famous name to sell a low quality product.

quote:

Originally posted by TJ Jackson

It is shameful that the original allowed the use of it's famous name to sell a low quality product.

I tried the chain's pizza twice & was very disappointed. I couldn't figure out why the original was held in such high esteem by Chicago if this is what they produced? Now it makes sense!

Never thought Uno pizza tasted like anything but chain pizza(not Good!!!)

I just sneaked over to BJ's (warehouse club store) behind feeder bands from Hurricane Gustav, and what did I see in the middle of their junk-food row? "Uno Express". The look of the pizzas on the counter did not inspire me to indulge.

hey don where in miami are you, i lived in north mia bch for a while and used to drive to kendall drive and turnpike for half decent unos, that was before hurricane andrew and they are gone along with the ft lauderdale unos. good luck with storms palm beach was our escape from andrew..........wre the unos pizza frozen at bj's or cooked?

BTB is right.

The Uno's chain, I understand that's all the Uno's outside of the original (and, I gather Due's), is based in an industrial park behind a Home Depot in a suburban section of Boston.

So much for "Chicago Grill."

One thing in their favor, that crisco-enriched crust sure cleans you out.

quote:

Originally posted by phatphil

hey don where in miami are you, i lived in north mia bch for a while and used to drive to kendall drive and turnpike for half decent unos, that was before hurricane andrew and they are gone along with the ft lauderdale unos. good luck with storms palm beach was our escape from andrew..........wre the unos pizza frozen at bj's or cooked?

Hi Phil,

I am down in what was Cutler Ridge (now the town of Cutler Bay). BJ's has a 50-foot counter divided up into sort of kiosks serving hot dogs, pizza, etc. So, the pizzas were cooked.

I remember that Uno's out by Kendall and the Turnpike, but I never got there before it closed. I had heard it was ok (although I have never had pizza in Chicago).

My girlfriend and I tried this chain a few weeks ago while on a trip to Buffalo, it was packed so we thought it'd be worth a try. We ordered an appetizer which was extremely greasy and the pizza was cold in the middle when it arrived at the table. For the money we paid it was very small as well. We won't be returning.

Here is my limited understanding from a number of people who worked for many years at the original Pizzeria Uno's and Due's in Chicago: the Boston Ownership Group wanted to duplicate the Chicago business on a nationwide basis and bought rights to the business but not to the recipe that originator Ike Sewell developed for the original Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza. The original recipe part of the deal was a little too expensive for them -- they thought -- and the Boston Group concluded that the recipe wasn't that difficult or important, but just the concept of "deep dish" pizza was. They figured they could easily throw together an "adequate" recipe for a deep dish pizza to put into those black 2" deep pans, that the original recipe wouldn't be that hard to clone (just some sort of dough, cheese and tomatoes), and that people would go crazy about the concept anyway. Well they were very, very wrong and the rest is history (and their business may well be also).

UNO's in Chicago use to be great and they got so large that they went down hill quick. Seems like that happens with all very good concepts.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

I preferred Due's when I was in Chicago. I will eat Uno's Chicago Grill pizza, because I'm in Central New York and unless I make it myself:


....they are the only place to get it...I will say their crust isn't that bad, its close to that light buttery crunch I remember...

....but then since moving out of Chicago, I have greatly lowered my expectations for pizza. The only pizza I really like here is the tomato pie from Italian Chef in Syracuse (... I know I have to get to Twin Trees sometime)..

I just had the pleasure of eating at Pizzaria Due( Pizzaria Uno was packed)last Friday in downtown Chicago.We came upon it quite by accident while visiting the Harley store there.Love the history of all 3 of the owner's places( he opened a tex-mex around the corner from Pizzaria Due in the 40s because there were no places like that in Chicago, and he was from Texas)It was fantastic pizza!!! But I agree-I have eaten at the chains and never had the same, wonderful pizza.The original Pizzaria Uno is housed in such a small place that he couldnt expand for the demand( His last name is Sewell, as BTB said, and actually the street is named after him)so he bought a mansion 1 block away, and put Pizzaria Due in the former wine cellar.Really cool place.And the Tex-Mex restaurant is in the old carriage house of the same home.I believe my cousin got pictures of both pizzarias, and will post them on my Harley trip report when I receive them...

I always preferred Gino's (not the chain)to Uno and Due but I dined at all three places. I took some friends from other states (Tenn., Ind., SC, and NY) to the chain called Uno's in the Boston area and they loved it. Kept wanting to go back. I thought it wasn't the same as the original (no graffiti on the walls, for one thing) but it still beat anything from Seattle by a country mile.