Uno’s Pizzeria & Grill Brand Refresh and Prototype Development

Challenge

Uno Pizzeria & Grill was a 75-year-old company looking to develop a disruptive iteration of their concept focusing on the core competencies and heritage of their brand to move out of the bar and grill segment into the restaurant-bar segment, leading with pizza and beer.  The goal was to develop a prototype design and revised menu for an initial location to serve as a model for future scalability and franchisee profitability while helping guests discover a new way to experience the original Chicago deep-dish pizza.

Solution

Synergy Restaurant Consultants took the management team on a discovery tour to survey best-in-class, on-trend, and relevant concepts to provide insights for how to position their refreshed concept. This analysis culminated in a brand positioning session resulting in a conceptual framework and new brand positioning statement designed to engage younger consumers by providing faster service and multiple points of access for guests to interact with the new experiential concept.   This new strategy incorporated innovative technology to facilitate quick service times as well as a “store within a store” to support off premise sales.

A key focus of the project was determining the best method for baking their signature deep-dish pizza in the new prototype with the goal of creating a consistent product that was on par with the original recipe served at their heritage locations but with a shorter cook time. As part of this project, Synergy completed equipment testing to find the best method for swiftly cooking the deep-dish pies as well as a labor efficiency and BOH optimization project.