At my local Uno’s, you’d never know it was a pizza place by looking at the storefront or at the menu. It’s not Pizzaria Uno anymore, Now it’s Uno’s Grill on the menu, and just Uno’s on the outside of the building. You have to go 5 or 6 pages into the menu to find pizza, and there’s only a single page and half-a dozen pizzas listed.
I don’t see any new specialty type of food. They seem to be positioning themselves as another Chili’s or Outback or Applebee’s, maybe a little more steakhouse than anything else.
This is pretty new. The menu has changed just in the past month. Kinda interesting, I wonder of this is a national thing.
The Uno’s in downtown Cincinnati closed then re-opened as “Za”. It then quickly died of embarrassment and is standing empty with all the linens still on the tables (last I checked).
The two other Uno’s have changed to Uno’s Bar and Grills. Did this chain suffer some severe set back? Or did they buy into some horrible re-branding scheme to appear new and fresh? Yes we can increase your market share by taking you away from your signature product which has been the basis of your 50 years of success. This way you can become more a neighborhood bar (and compete with Applebees, Friday’s, Bennigans, O’Charleys and every other national bar chain)
The one they opened in the St. Louis suburbs was an “Uno Chicago Grill” as of 2002. Being a childhood fan, I took my wife a couple of times, but she thought the non-pizza food was horrible, particularly the pasta dishes.
(Aside to Jim: The one I ate at as a kid was in Beechmont Mall. I know the mall’s been torn down, but did they build a new Uno’s on the site?)
The Unos near me closed without fanfare almost a year ago. Now, this being said, I like going into the city (Chicago) to go to the original Uno’s. I talked to the folks there about the franchize, and, honestly, they seemed a bit embarassed by it. I don’t think they’re in any way actually linked to it other than by name. I believe whomever -is- in charge of the franchize may change it however they like. I was also told by the folks at the original that the recipie for the pizza (especially the crust) isn’t the same in the franchize, which explained a lot; I had originally assumed somehow my taste in pizza had drastically changed.
We went to the Uno’s Chicago Grill here two weeks ago. My wife (a Chicago gal) wanted a sausage pizza. They were out of sausage. We ended up at Dion’s Pizza (a New Mexico chain) where they have plenty of sausage and a pretty good pizza.
They just opened here a few months ago, and boy is that place packed. They didn’t make the parking lot big enough, and sometimes you have to wait an hour to be seated.
The menu seems to have pretty much everything, like an Applebees, but they seem to specialize in personal sized pizzas.
Another thing I noticed is that it looks like they hired their staff away from Gap or Abercrombie. They are overwhelmingly young and gorgeous and white, which seems really odd. Are the other locations like that?
I noticed this the Summer of 2005. A Uno’s Bar and Grill in I dragged my family to on vacation Williamsburg Va. wasn’t the old “Uno’s” I remembered from the mid-late-80’s in DC … it was fine because I was going for a known quantity vs. the local Al’s Pizza … but it was fine because it was basically an Appleby’s or Houlihan’s and not because I got what I thought I came for.
Wiki says the menu change happened in 1994 article linked off of wiki article. Oh and it is a chain owned & run from Boston - but I guess Uno’s Boston Pizzeria doesn’t have the same ring.
The Uno’s here in town closed a couple of years ago. I’m still stumped as to why. We used to go there frequently and the place was always busy. In fact, I used to work with a guy who’s neighbor was the manager, and he was always talking about the awards this guy was winning for having such an outstanding franchise. I know they changed management at one point but it was still a surprise to go there for dinner one night and find the place boarded up.
So, to answer the OP, no it’s not a pizzeria anymore.