UNO Pizzeria & Grill announces the introduction of Chicago Thin Crust Pizza, the biggest new product launch for UNO’s since inventing Deep Dish Pizza in 1943.
“Chicago Thin Crust is a game changer for UNO’s and expands our brand into the Thin Crust Pizza market, widening its appeal, especially as a carry-out item,” says Louie Psallidas, UNO’s President and CEO. “Our Chicago Thin Crust Pizza is done the UNO Way: with a bold, Chicago approach, using fresh house-made dough, the highest-quality ingredients and over-the-top flavors and toppings. I like to call it thin crust pizza with a deep dish attitude!”
“UNO’s is looking to change the way Americans eat pizza from restaurants. There is nothing like our Chicago Thin Crust in the market,” says Psallidas. “The addition of Chicago Thin Crust, along with our Flatbreads and Deep Dish Pizza, gives UNO’s a full line of pizza offerings and, most importantly, more choices for our guests.”
US pizzeria sales are approximately $40 billion and growing. According to Technomic’s 2016 Pizza Study, pizza consumption is trending at its highest level in four years and over 70 percent of consumers order carry-out pizza one or more times per month, while 45 percent have dine-in.
Capturing this growing market means offering a product that goes far above the norm. To that end, perfecting Chicago Thin Crust Pizza has been a two-year project for UNO’s. In a market saturated with thin crust pizza restaurants and take out shops, it took the talents of UNO’s Executive Chef Andre Fuehr to develop a recipe that delivered a Thin Crust Pizza to meet the high expectations of UNO’s and its guests.
According to Fuehr, “It starts with the dough, made fresh each day in the restaurant and cold fermented for 48 hours to slow the process, allowing for a longer proof time, which gives the dough a more flavorful yeasty, hoppy, almost beer-like flavor.”
Fuehr notes that UNO’s sauce is made each day in the restaurant as well, using fresh-pack, vine-ripened, California tomatoes.
“In addition to making our sauce daily, we buy fresh mozzarella and shred our own cheese. Unlike many of our competitors, we use fresh sausage and hamburger for our pizza toppings; we never use frozen precooked meats. We even go the extra mile and roast our fresh-cut vegetables each day.”
Chicago Thin Crust Pizzas are then built with toppings and sauce generously spread “edge-to-edge” finished with a Chicago-style cut. For those outside Chicago, that means square cuts.
Chef Fuehr’s vision was to create bold flavored pizzas that aced the “Open Box Test,” that moment of truth when the box is opened and the sight and smell of the pizza cause you to salivate and dig in!
UNO’s created five unique combinations of abundantly flavorful toppings for their signature Chicago Thin Crust Pizzas, including:
- Windy City Works: Fresh onions, peppers and mushrooms with hamburger, hardwood-smoked bacon, pepperoni, crumbled sausage, mozzarella, aged cheddar and Romano cheeses.
- Whole Hog: Mozzarella, aged cheddar and Romano cheeses layered with all things pork: hardwood-smoked bacon, thinly sliced prosciutto, pepperoni and crumbled sausage.
- Super Roni: Pepperoni, mozzarella, aged cheddar and Romano.
- Northside Cheese: A blend of mozzarella, aged cheddar, Romano cheese and tomato sauce.
- Veggie Extravaganza: House-roasted red onions, peppers, zucchini, yellow squash and tomatoes with baby spinach, mushrooms, mozzarella, aged cheddar and Romano cheeses.
Each pizza is available in a 10-inch individual or 16-inch extra-large size, ranging from $9.99 to $19.99 depending on the size and toppings. Additional toppings and “make your own” combinations are available.
Based in Boston, Massachusetts, Uno Restaurant Holdings Corporation includes 119 company-owned and franchised Uno Pizzeria & Grill restaurants located in 23 states, the District of Columbia, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, Honduras and Saudi Arabia. Famous for inventing Deep Dish Pizza in 1943, UNO’s mission is to deliver big, bold flavors, rich, rewarding experiences and unbelievably delicious pizza and other craveable menu creations you won’t find anywhere else. The Company also operates Uno Dué Go, a fast casual concept and Uno Foods, a consumer packaged foods business which supplies airlines, movie theaters, hotels, airports, travel plazas, schools and supermarkets with both frozen and refrigerated private-label foods and UNO branded products. For more information, visit www.unos.com.
