That helps explain some of their recent, "100% Satisfied or It's Free, no matter what!" commercials. Obviously, they're hurting for business.

You know how many restaurants in Chicago have the word 'Uno', or 'Duo'? It's like they have no originality up there. You want to know why the reason your business is failing? It's because you rode the curtails of the 'uno' name for far too long.

I usually go to the restaurant at Kenmore Square in Boston. It's a good place and I dunno how they could be in debt. Maybe because people don't go there because of the prices. Raspberry Iced Tea there is really good, by the way.

So putting more expensive items on their menu at the same time people are cutting back on eating out isn't working out for them. Color me shocked.

And the next of the "dark green building" chain restaurants begins to fall...

Thinking back on the Bennigan's bankrupcy, I just realized how many of these restaurants all have the same dark green/dark wood/crap on the walls decor.

Noooo.. I love Uno!

@femaleconsumerist:
I haven't even seen those ads, but it's true. My friends and I got an entire $50 meal for free after a long wait and because my girlfriend didn't enjoy her food.

I haven't seen those commercials (from the first comment here) but that definitely does sound desperate. The UNO around me closed down about a year ago and the building was vacant for months before Dogfish Head took it over, a huge improvement is you ask me, and the place is always packed on weekends.

Uno's was our favorite shitty sit-down "Applechilichicagogrizzlebees" chain place until the one in our city went out of business 2-3 years ago. Now it's a 45 minute drive to the nearest one. It's rare we're in that area so we've only been once or twice. I wonder if this will affect their frozen food sales?

With more middle income families tightening their wallet and not eating out as much, I'm not surprised more casual dining restaurants are starting to face bankruptcy, or are at least hurting significantly. My family went from eating out 1-2 times a week to maybe twice a month.

I used to go to Uno all the time until I was at the one in Fairfield, CT and was having a nice dinner with my then GF. There were two employees sitting directly behind us, folding napkins, and one was talking REALLY LOUD about a rash he had on his hands and arms. We left before we ordered and I havent been back to one since.

I know it was an isolated incident but he should have at least gone in back to talk about his rash.. or better yet, when your food-touchy parts get a rash and you serve food... STAY HOME.

You guys do realize that the 'uno' is a generic name, and almost all of the restaurants with the 'uno' name are not related to one another. I Chicagoan(or whatever they are called) would tell you that there is only 1 Uno's pizzaria, and it is downtown around michigan st.... right around the corner is the pizzaria duo, sign looks the same and everything, not related to one another. And this grill, is not related to any of the above mentioned places. I watched a food network special about all the chicago pizza places one day. Useless trivia I know...

@snoopblog
You do realize that this is the chain restaurant Uno's, so yeah the resturant's are related to each other.

@snoop-blog: It's not a generic name. [en.wikipedia.org]

@jaydez: Yeah, no kidding. I think restaurants should be required to offer sick leave so employees don't have an incentive to come in when they shouldn't. As it is, a lot of people work sick because they can't afford to lose income.

...as the story goes, the original Pizzaria Uno, was so good, that others tried to mimmick their appearance, style, recipes, and the name itself. The orginal made a grave error by not copyrighting themselves. there are over 40 uno pizzaria's (or something like that) in chicago, not one of them is owned, operated, or related to 'pizzaria Uno', which is the one that gets the plugs on t.v., and is supposed to be as the name suggests, Chicago's first pizzaria.

Not true - Pizzeria Uno and Pizzeria Due are the same. The owner's created Due to take the overflow from the original Uno.

@Meg Marco: Well I thought that's what the whole special was about, separating the original from the others, but by any means if I'm wrong please just delete my comments on this post.

Uno and Due are related, but Uno is preferred. Uno (the orginal) is my favorite, Lou Malnati's second. The chain itself should have just stuck with the pizza. Pizza will never go out of style, but chain crap-on-the-walls restaurants are no longer "cool". It's a better to build a niche and do it well than try to be everything to everybody. It's not just that people are eating out less due to budget constraints, they also want to make it more special when they do. The chain restaurants are far from special when they all have the same 50 things on the menu covered in club sauce.

@pmr12002: Of course all the 'uno chicago grills' are related to eachother, but I thought they were different than the actual 'pizzaria uno'. I don't know though, all I do know is that Chicago confuses the hell out of me, even with the restaurants apparently...

So no more 3200 calorie single-serving pizza?

@snoop-blog: The chain stores have a different menu and different pizza, but are part of the same company that owns the actual Uno and Due. Most chain store customers do not want to wait for decent pizza, so they changed it.

@airren: I see someone cleared that up before I had a chance to.

Sorry folks, but hey at least now I know... You really do learn something new everyday. I usually don't post comments on info I'm not sure of so I apologize again. It just wasn't that long ago I had seen the special and I could have swore it said something about smaller pizza places jacking their name.

The (relatively) new chain sucks, but there was an Uno restaurant near East Quad in Ann Arbor Michigan that had great pizza. I know it was just a part of the franchise, but back in the 80s it was awesome.

While the chain branches could close, I highly doubt that Uno's or Due's downtown could possibly shut down. They're packed, constantly (Even if they are worse than Malnati's. Boo-yeah!)

@Hanke: No lie. You'd think that they have a huge market in pregnant women and people with low fiber diets. If you eat a few pieces, you can bet that in the near term, that you will visit a bathroom. It's the body's reaction to eating 4-5x the daily recommended intake of calories in a single sitting.

Man...we just got our Uno's back too! Despite the moniker, I live in SW Ohio, and there was an Uno in the mall 2 miles from my house until about 4 years ago. They redeveloped the mall into a streetscape and closed down everything that was there previously. The old Uno's space was turned into a seafood restaurant that tanked, and Uno's came back. Their redesigned menu is a bit disappointing--if your thing is pizza, stick with pizza! It's also disappointing that my last trip resulted in a bout of food poisoning, subsequent fainting due to illness and hitting my head on a wood armoire, and a trip to the ER for stitches in my right eyebrow. Wait...so why am I disappointed it may be headed for bankruptcy?

Ah, Lou Malnati's. I've been eating there since I was a little kid. Their sausage pizza is almost completely covered by a pounded-thin "sheet" of sausage, so you get some in every bite.

Best pizza from Chicago, hands down.

Giordarno's doesn't have Uno in its name.

@lannister80: I'm from Chicago and got married there last year. I wanted to have my rehearsal dinner at Lou Malnati's but there wasn't one near where the hotel was. So we went to Giordanno's instead : ) My mother-in-law was kinda pissy about it because it was 'just a pizza place,' but she soon learned not to mess with my Chicago pizza and I got my way.

I'd be sad to see Uno go. There's only a couple of them left in Arizona and we have often commented on how empty they always are.

Sad. Love me some Uno's!

Aww, this makes me sad. There's a few Uno's here in San Diego that I used to love going to back when I had the time and money. Their pizza was great, their pastas were to die for, and the desserts were heaven on a plate. I hope they don't go under; if they do, where will my fiance and I go for food like theirs?!

(Yes, I realize there's a zillion pizza chains out there. But Uno's always seems different somehow.)

I ate there a couple times when I lived in Ohio, its like Chili's with pizza and thats about it. Food was so-so, so IMO they can go-go...

Ours closed a couple of years ago, which was actually really surprising considering the location next to the only movie theatre in town and a Holiday Inn.

This reminds me of what happened to Boston Chicken after they changed their name to Boston Market. "We don't just sell chicken! We sell lots of other things too! Let's change our name to something stupid and generic and confusing! We won't lose our name recognition! We won't go bankrupt! Let's do it!" Ten year later: Pizzeria Uno, Uno's Chicago Grill, same story. Dunkin' Donuts had better not lose the "Donuts" or it'll happen to them too.

fine, as long as the original place sticks around in chicago. i mean, it did invent deep dish pizza, after all, though i suppose good ol' lou malnati might have a thing or two to say about who's still serving the best deep dish.

@snoop-blog: what's so confusing about chicago? we were even kind enough to rebuild the city in a grid so anyone can find their way around.

While the chain locations can't compare to the original, it was at least nice to know that I could get SOMETHING close to Uno pizza somewhere other than Chicago.

@stre: I'm a simple country bumpkin... all it takes is for me to walk out on a different side of the street than I walked in on and I'm screwed. Which really pisses me off because I'm known to all of my friends to be the last guy to get lost. (been on tons of car trips as the driver, never lost my way yet...

thank god I had my new sprint instinct with the navi last weekend when I went up there.... and by the way I couldn't even afford to fart in most of the stores yall put downtown. I bought a pair of shoes from niketown, a shirt at old navy, and some clothes from sears (only the shoes were mine the rest were the gf's). What's sad is we have the same stores we shopped at (besides niketown) here.

You all keep talking about Giordanos' and Lou's and the like, but have failed to mention the restaurant that has been consistently voted one of the top 2 in the Chitown area for the last twenty years, Arrenello's! When I go back to Chicago I go there not to any of those others.

Kinda like how Boston Market is based in Colorado.

I've always found it curious that Chicago-style deep-dish pizza hasn't become more popular outside the Chicagoland area, with the obvious exception of the Uno nationwide chain. You can find NY-style pizza everywhere. Why aren't there more mom-and-pop deep-dish pizza joints throughout the country? Give me a Gino's East-type restaurant in San Diego, and you've got a customer for life.

Dun, dun, dun... dundundun dun dunun.

Keep 'em closing down, keep 'em failing. Bennigan's, Uno's... may Olive Garden an Applebee's soon follow.

Who knows, maybe actual restaurants with real food will take their place.

Uno was terrible anyway, and Chicago pizza is nothing but a travesty.

Here's hoping that they crumble like a ton of bricks and never come back, and may the good people find good jobs that don't pollute our food landscape and sling crappy food.

We ate at one once, it was nothing notable. Just another Applebees/Chili's type chain but with pizza on the menu.

They all have the same menu and the same decor. They are also fairly expensive for what they are. We found that we can hit some of our local places and spend a fraction of the money for better food. Even the local swanky gourmet restaurants in town are in the $10 to $35 range for dinner. Maybe places like Uno are cheap compared to gourmet dining in a high cost of living large city.

There was something in the news about a huge percentage change in people cooking at home. I would guess this is the biggest factor in the bankruptcies.

@MJPByron:

You must be from NY and love greasy cardboard.

Uno is nothing special, but it was the only thing I could get that was relatively close to that hometown taste now that I live in MI.

Now, if Dick Portillo would branch out beyond Chicago and the onesie twosie restaurants he has where his other homes are, I'd be in heaven!

@stre:
And the grid was such a great idea, Los Angeles stole the layout for the San Fernando Valley.
LA even stole some of the names, Winnetka, Halsted, Kinzie.

We had an UNO in Fargo, ND until the owners dropped the franchise and went independent. I'm now thinking it was a smart move on their part.

I was going to jokingly post "This pizza is better than that pizza," but I see I'm too late....

@TheSpatulaOfLove:
Portillo has branched out, he has restaurants in SoCal. Moreno Park & Buena Park.
[www.portillos.com]

This would all be fine if I still lived in Chicago, but I don't. I have nowhere but Uno's to get my inside out pizza! ARGH.