UNO CHICAGO GRILL
CELEBRATES MILESTONE OPENING
- 200th RESTAURANT and 60 YEARS OF SUCCESS -
BOSTON (December 15, 2003)
– Today Uno Restaurant Holdings Corp. opens the 200th
Uno Chicago Grill restaurant in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
The opening marks a significant milestone for the company
that also celebrated its sixtieth birthday this year. Of
the 200 locations worldwide, 35% are franchise operated
and 65% company-owned and operated.
“This has been a very exciting year for us. In October,
we celebrated our sixtieth birthday with the people of Chicago
at our original location on the corner of Wabash and Ohio.
Now we are proud to celebrate the opening of our 200th Uno
Chicago Grill location in Wilkes-Barre,” said Paul
MacPhail, president and chief operating officer, Uno Restaurant
Holdings Corp. “The Uno brand has evolved over time
and our guests know and love us not only for our signature
deep dish pizza but also our steaks, seafood, salads and
sandwiches.”
The 200th restaurant is located at 110 Schechter Drive,
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The restaurant owners are John
Metz, Paul (Chip) Siegel and Frank Bevevino of Uno Management,
LLC, licensed franchisees of Uno Restaurants since 1981.
The franchise group is operated by Tom Hannigan and Chris
Siegel. The group owns and operates Uno Chicago Grill locations
in Philadelphia and Conshohocken-Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania.
A special ribbon-cutting ceremony will take place at the
restaurant on Monday, December 15 at 10:45 a.m.
History of Uno
Ike Sewell invented the Original Deep Dish Pizza in 1943
and opened the first Pizzeria Uno at 29 East Ohio in Chicago,
Illinois. He established a prestigious landmark that today
remains a Chicago favorite.
In 1978, Aaron Spencer of Newton, Massachusetts expanded
the deep dish pizza concept outside of Chicago. The first
Pizzeria Uno in Boston opened in 1979. The popularity of
the Windy City’s legendary pizza was a huge success.
In 1994, two years after the 100th restaurant was opened,
Aaron decided to expand the menu to appeal to a variety
of appetites. With the evolution of the menu to include
high-quality grill items, Pizzeria Uno became Uno Chicago
Grill.
Based in Boston, Uno Restaurant Holdings Corp. currently
has a system of 200 company-owned and franchise full service
units. Uno Chicago Grill restaurants are located in 34 states,
the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, South Korea and the
United Arab Emirates. The company also operates a consumer
foods division, which supplies airlines, movie theaters,
hotel restaurants and supermarkets with both frozen and
refrigerated private label foods and branded Uno products.
In 2003, Uno Chicago Grill was named by
Entrepreneur Magazine as the #1 franchise opportunity in
their category. The company also was selected by Franchise
Times as one of the top 20 companies to watch in 2003. For
more information, visit www.unos.com.
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