At the risk of inviting another pointless “this pizza is better than that pizza” debate in the comments, we feel it is necessary to inform you that Uno has run into some nasty looking debt problems and some people are speculating that they may be the next restaurant chain to go under.
Bloomberg is reporting that the chain “will have its credit ratings cut to “default” if it goes ahead with a plan to miss a bond payment due this week.” Uno Restaurant Holdings Corp, which is based in Boston (not Chicago, ahem), and whose restaurants are located predominantly in East Coast states like New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, said that they have 30 days before they default in which to figure something out.
“We are not in any imminent danger of filing for bankruptcy,” Uno Chief Financial Officer Louie Psallidas told the Wall Street Journal.
When asked about the recent string of chain restaurant failures, Mr. Psallidas replied: “Those other restaurants that filed, their concepts haven’t remained relevant. Ours has.”
The Wall Street Journal says that Uno Chicago Grill has “moved in recent years to a more expansive menu of grilled, fried and sautéed fare, including Angus beef steaks and Bolognese pasta, and drinks such as pomegranate margaritas.”
Oh well. Long live Lou Malnati’s.
Uno Restaurant Chain Talks With Lenders on Payment [WSJ]
Uno Restaurant Faces `Default’ Grade on Missed Coupon (Update3) [Bloomberg]
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@jaydez: You actually got seated? For some reason, it would take us inordinately long to get a table at the one in Westfarms. Now they’ve been bulldozed to make room for P.F. Chang’s.
Of course, the only Uno’s left standing in CT, as far as I know, is in Manchester, but you’ve got basically every franchise that has ever existed there, so that doesn’t say much for Uno’s future…
@drjayphd: Which reminds me, I think Pepe’s actually opened up across the street from where Uno’s is. Relatively authentic New Haven pizza or cut-and-paste Chicago style? I’m surprised Pepe’s hasn’t mopped the floor with Uno yet.
It makes sense that they’re from the east coast. Their pizza never was that great. Though on the east coast it is probably good. We’re just spoiled here in Chicago with Lou Malnati’s, Gino’s, Giordano’s, Tortorice’s, I could go on for a while.
They really need to think about franchising to other states, but I think it has something to do with Wisconsin cheese, because (I heard) their cows only eat corn, as opposed to other crap.
Wow, got a little off topic there, I just love pizza.
Nooooo! We don’t get ‘em in CA, at least in these parts of CA, and I love going to them when I go back east. It’s the one chain I miss. Their style of pizza isn’t for everyone, but it’s definitely for me, and it’s remained consistent throughout all the years and menu changes.
I better go one last time before they go under…
@TheSpatulaOfLove: Negative, I am from New Jersey, where we like our pizza to be made of pizza, not toppings thrown onto sauce while the pizza man looks in the direction of cheese.
I mean, it’s not like I’m from the region where pizza originated from when a bunch of dudes from Italy opened up Lombardi’s in 1905… it was only, y’know, the first pizzeria in the United States.
I think I can settle the argument by stating that there are few, if any, restaurants in the United States that make pizza like in Italy, which is like eating crispy clouds of delicious.
That’s too bad. Unlike Bennigan’s, this place was actually good. Crikey, why couldn’t it have been Applebee’s or something? Oh well, I’ll have to find a new pizza place to go to next time I’m in Boston.
@snoop-blog: The connections between Chicago pizzarias is astounding though. Lou Malnati managed Pizzaria Due while the Sewell family still owned it, so it’s about the closest you can get to the “original”. But just about every other Chicago-based pizzaria that sells pan stuffed pizza (sauce on top style) has a family member who was related to or worked for Sewell at one time.
Uno’s hasn’t updated their image since the 80s. Really feels outdated in there– “old tymey” brass rails and wood panels everywhere. They’re gonna need a more modern look and feel to keep up with competitors. But would that defeat the whole “Uno’s” corporate image? Mustached hucksters in suspenders and straw hats are pretty vital to the whole concept, and it just woudn’t be the same without them. Regarless, the whole place seems to hinge on the success of the “Cheers” opening montage, something that almost nobody thinks is interesting anymore. Turn-of-the-century kitsch peaked in the 80s, I suppose, right around the same time the Uno’s chain took off.
MJPBryon:
Pizza is not meant to be folded up so the topping doesn’t slide off. But I digress…
Both UNO and Duo (Due) for the non-Chicagoan will not be affected by this bankruptcy. The UNO chain itself is uneatable and a lame imitation of good Chicago Za.. The have long since not been part of the Chicago Market.
This was only a matter of time.. I just hope its Apple’s next… After all, anyone that has Tyler Florence as shill should fail.
Can you please stop calling Chicago’s Uno sibling Duo? It’s Due! D.U.E. and a commenter was right, Due was established to take the overflow from the first Uno on State Street. Now, I know the franchise was in trouble when the close the one at the East Village in Manhattan a while ago. The service was almost too friendly for New York and didn’t attract the hipster crowd.
Quick somebody start a restaurant that sells a prix fixe menu consisting solely of Uno’s Pizza Skins, Bennigan’s Monte Cristo, Houlihan’s Stuffed Mushrooms, Ruby Tuesday’s loaded baked potato, Hooters wings, Chili’s chips and salsa, Friday’s Oreo Madness and Miller Lite
It would be the ultimate “slum dining” destination.
HA! That’s what they get for being another bootleg wannabe pizzaria uno.
@snoop-blog: Actually Pizzeria Due and Pizzeria Uno are related to one another.
Clearly, many other people already pointed out the obvious. What I cannot understand from this article is whether or not this would affect the original stores in downtown Chicago, where the pizza actually tastes good or if it’s just the franchises.
The two Uno locations here in Fort Wayne quietly closed in November of last year, shortly after the mayoral election, for mysteriously unknown reasons.
Unfortunately, as a displaced Chicagoan, I still can’t find a good Chicago-style pizza around here to replace Uno’s. Time to let my fingers do the walking…
@MJPByron: Olive Garden for one isn’t going anywhere. Darden continues to expand and maintain huge profits. It’s these more “casual” chains having problems.
I realize that The Olive Garden is crap, but both it and Red Lobster (the sister store) are doing as well as always, thanks to higher prices that bring in a crowd much better off financiall
FYI…The Uno in Deep Creek, Maryland has Catholic Mass on Sunday mornings in the summer.
I’d like Eucharist with a side of fries, please.
@Troy F.: Don’t forget Romano’s Macaroni’s (geez, that makes Ruth’s Cris sound normal) design-your-own pasta.
@sir_eccles: BEST PIZZA IN ALL OF FREAKIN’ CHICAGO!!!!
@MFfan310: I was just about to comment on our uno’s franchise closing in fort wayne but i thought i’d do a quick ctrl+f search and see if anybody else already did.
what i had heard through the grapevine was that the owners just shut down in the middle of the evening one day apparently because they decided they were bored of the restaurant business or something.
I am a native Chicagoan and have yet to try Malnati’s, but the northsiders (and nw burbs) seem to like it. One day I will get to sample their pie.
IMO Gino’s East is Chicago’s best Deep Dish, and Giordano’s is the best stuffed pizza in Chicago. THERE IS A DIFFERENCE!
No one ever mentions our thin crust but, For the thin crust crowd, my first pick would be Aurelio’s, followed by Reggio’s. Beggar’s is an honorable mention.
If you decided to try Aurelio’s make the trip to the Original Homewood Location, the restaurant is setup like several Italian Villas under one roof. A short trip on the Metra Electric from the city to Homewood will get you there, or if you want quick access there is a location in the South Loop now.
Meh, the place had ok food and poor service the one time I went so it’s not surprising. I’m in central California so maybe it’s the angry high school girl who served me. It was packed with people waiting outside the first month it was open, now, not so much.
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM….Uno’s Pepperoni pizza and Pomegranite Margarita’s…
@Weirdsmobile: The best pizza comes from *MY* kitchen. It’s supplied with homemade beer (a San Diego County Fair prize winner!) as well.
But if you’re stuck in Chicago instead of San Diego, it doesn’t take much work to find good pizza.
Oh no! If Uno’s closes then I’ll only have Friday’s, Chili’s, Macaroni Grill, Bertucci’s, Houston’s, Applebee’s, and Ruby Tuesdays to get my fix of mid-priced food and ridiculously huge beers!
@MJPByron: “..and Chicago pizza is nothing but a travesty”
Sir, I bid you good day.
There is a difference between deep dish and stuffed. Deep dish is a regular pizza with a thicker crust and heavy toppings. Stuffed pizza is the one that looks inside out. Mmmmm…inside out pizza.
Oh and all you Chicago expats, you can order Chicago food for UPS delivery. Eli’s, Manny’s Deli, Portillo’s, etc.
[www.tastesofchicago.com]
@AtomicPlayboy: I’m not sure it’s really true that you can get NY style anywhere. You can certainly get thin crust, wedge cut, big pieces of pizza, but I have yet to find a NY Style joint in SW Ohio that lives up to the reputation. We do, however, have a good “stuffed pizza” place, which is kind of, sort of, relatively close to Chicago-style.
rock on consumerist! nothing beats a lou malnati’s deep dish ‘za.
my favorite lou’s is the one in downtown naperville in which the building used to be the old fire department. its a stones throw from the riverwalk and the downtown cultural district.
and i’m not sure, but i think they use no less than 74 sticks of butter as the main ingredient for their delightful crust on that deep dish.
They opened an UNO near us a few years ago. It didn’t last long, and closed up. We went twice and it wasn’t anything special. I thought the pizza was ok – overated at best.
For deep-dish Pizza near Detroit, we always go to Pizza Papalis in Dearborn. I’ve had Giordano’s several times in Chicago, and Pizza Papalis is pretty close to the same stuff.
I think rogues are OP due to the many forms of crowd control they have. Blind, gouge, cheep shot, kidney shot. Also vanish and cloak of skill are crazy talents. Lets not even mention cheat death or shadow step. Damn those rogues….and damn thos resto droods.
My only complaint about Unos is that almost everything on their menu BUT the deep dish pizza is horrible. There are a few non-pizza items that are good – salads, soups, and a few things on the appetizer menu – but the quality of those items is inconsistent (many of these items are prepared to order by the servers rather than the kitchen staff, so quality control is a lot more likely to be compromised). Adding “angus beef steaks and bolognese pasta” is nothing more than a huge bucket of fail if these items aren’t actually good.
I was a server at the Boston Kenmore Square location for three years, and while my experiences working there were generally positive, I attribute much of that to the fact that I consistently steered my customers away from about two thirds of the menu.
As many here have stated, Uno’s menu is basically Bennigan’s plus Pizza. By duplicating Bennigan’s menu (and their lack of quality control), they reduce the likelihood that their customers will order something they are actually good at making. They also thin their concept to the point that it might as well not even exist.
I would imagine the reason a lot of these restaurant chains are going under is that lacking a truly unique concept, they compete on price, and this forces them to stretch their margins a lot farther than they should. Thus any incidental event that thins their customer base instantly puts them in the red.
@PrestonBerryworth: Huh?
I stopped going to UNO years ago because their service was always poor.
just another heat and eat sysco special going out of business. Nothing to see here, unless you need further indication to unload any/all national food provider stock from your portfolio.
Perhaps if all of these chains weren’t so hopelessly homogeneous…
What makes UNO’s different than Applebee’s or Olive Garden? Not much, really. You can get, gee, lemme think, a Ceasar salad and boneless wings or pizza. ALL FRESHLY MICROWAVED and brought to your table.
What? Mmmm. Yup, classic Fast Food America at it’s best.
How ’bout this, franchise foodies:
1) Make a distinct menu.
2) Actually COOK the food. Why do I want microwaved junk?
Isn’t Uno the place with 1000 calorie entres?
No reason for me to go there.
Uno pizza will kill you in about a day. It tastes pretty good when you want something different, but Jesus that shit is unhealthy. Couple that with the Chili’s cheese fries or the awesome blossom … instagib.
And yeah, all of these restaurants are entirely the same. THey have a _tiny_ niche and then try to work that to make them seem original. Chili’s has the slight southwestern niche although there is very little that is actually southwestern; Uno has the slight pizza niche though their pizza is only good if you don’t want pizza; Outback has the slight steak niche, but their steaks aren’t nearly as good as any real steakhouse… Applebees, Ruby Tuesday, TGI Fridays… are all exactly the same and they’re aweful. I’m so tired of shitty nicknacks. In the North East we also have “the 99 Pub” and “Picadilly Pub,” which the Pic is gross, the 99 is not much better, but the 99 has a really good and unhealthy buffalo chicken sandwich … so it’s permissible.