Uno Pizzeria & Grill (formerly Pizzeria Uno and Uno Chicago Grill), or more informally as Uno’s, is a United States-origin franchised pizzeria restaurant chain under the parent company Uno Restaurant Holdings Corporation. Uno Pizzeria and Grill is best known for its Chicago-style deep dish pizza. Ike Sewell opened the first Pizzeria Uno in 1943.
History
Founding and original locations
The first Uno's was established in 1943 by former University of Texas football star Ike Sewell and his friend, former World War II G.I. Ric Riccardo, in the River North neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois.[3] Sewell originally intended to open a Mexican restaurant because "there wasn't a really decent Mexican restaurant in Chicago then."[4]
While Sewell and Riccardo are known as the owners of the original restaurant, a 1956 article from the Chicago Daily News asserts that the original deep-dish pizza recipe was created by chef Rudy Malnati Sr., the father of Lou Malnati