Toque of the Town: Uno Is Branching Out

Chris Gatto diversifies Uno Chicago Grill’s menu with more adventurous, artisanal fare.

By Monica Rogers, Contributing Editor -- Chain Leader, 1/1/2006

What do chicken pot pie, a veggie-goat cheese wrap and portobello penne have in common? At first glance, not a lot. But the far-reaching list is part of Uno Chicago Grill’s new strategy to build business lunches, attract family dinner guests and woo evening-with-friends crowds.

“The plan is to embolden grill-fare flavors with hip, new tastes, build on Uno Chicago Grill’s history of artisanal fare with nutritious new choices, create signature dishes in every menu category. And don’t mess with the deep-dish pizza,” says Vice President of Food and Beverage Chris Gatto, summarizing the vision he and CEO Frank Guidara shaped a year ago for the 212-unit, Boston-based chain.

Six weeks since the October launch, sales are up, check averages are running 3 percent higher than last year, traffic is building and all’s optimism.

But chicken pot pie? “Sure!” says Bill Marvin, a Gig Harbor, Wash.-based restaurant consultant. “Uno Chicago Grill has had the advantage of being a sit-down restaurant from the start. As long as they don’t mess with their strong sellers at the menu core, they have a lot of latitude.”

Early indications from Uno’s guests support this. Deep-dish pizza still represents 25 percent of sales, while new indulgences like the Chicken Pot Pie, $8.99, and a dessert called Chocolate Wow, $4.99, molten chocolate brownie, chocolate crunch, chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream, both figure in the top three in their respective categories.

Hip and Healthful
But more-healthful new Gatto creations such as the Chicken Portobello Penne, $10.49, and the Roasted Vegetables & Goat Cheese Wrap, $6.99, now top pasta and sandwich category sales.

The pasta dish features multigrain penne topped with sauteed diced chicken breast, spinach, and plum and sun-dried tomatoes combined with burgundy-portobello sauce and sprinkled with Parmesan and chopped basil. The wrap stuffs a whole-wheat tortilla with sun-dried-tomato spread, roasted zucchini, summer squash, red onion, red and green peppers, caramelized onion, lettuce, tomato and goat cheese.

“We’re really pleased about the reception for these two dishes in particular,” says Gatto, “because they’re both strong examples of a new direction we’d anticipated that our guests wanted us to go: flavorful, artisanal, hip and healthy. ...Our guests want more adventurous tastes.”

Still, when Gatto first developed the Roasted Vegetables & Goat Cheese Wrap, he figured goat cheese was too risky. “I brought it to Frank [Guidara] to taste with melted mozzarella instead,” Gatto recalls. “Frank liked the sandwich, and I said, ‘Too bad we can’t do it with goat cheese.’ Frank’s response was, ‘Why not? Our guests are ready for that!’”

Follow the Leader
The opportunity to strengthen Uno’s stance as a casual-theme competitor has been a welcome task for Gatto, a former hotel, country-club and independent restaurant chef. He first followed mentor Allen Gibson to Uno as a development chef in the late ’90s. Gibson, a European master chef, had mentored and moved Gatto into the role of head chef at the Pillar House in Newton, Mass., in 1986, a space he filled for three years.

When Gibson left the position of vice president of food and beverage at Uno, Gatto was pleased to fill it in 2002.

Already well up the diversification road that transformed Pizzeria Uno into Uno Chicago Grill, Gatto says Guidara’s arrival in February 2005 took things to the next level. After they analyzed the menu, Gatto deleted 15 items, retooled 22 and developed 30 new dishes. “It’s been a huge effort involving several departments—purchasing, operations, R&D—and our operators in the field to bring this off,” he says.

Rapid-Fire Retooling
Retooling meant topping burgers with “ultimate burger sauce,” a mayo-tomato-spice blend. Gatto switched to a soft-egg challah roll and a three-seeded demi-baguette with sesame, poppy and amaranth seeds for some sandwiches. “We bake these off at units during the day,” says Gatto.

Looking at pizza, Gatto initially explored making the signature deep dish more healthful by using different flours, “but we concluded it was best not to meddle with the original.” Instead, he added the Farmers Market pizza, $14.59 regular, a deep-dish vegetarian version with caramelized onions, spinach, sun-dried and plum tomatoes, eggplant, pesto, feta, mozzarella and grated Romano. It’s now one of the top three sellers in the deep-dish category.

Gatto also developed a line of seven flatbread pizzas, which feature a chewy, crunchy crust made with organic flour. “The idea was to really keep it artisanal and gourmet,” he says.

The BBQ Chicken version, $8.99, with chicken breast, mozzarella, red onion, parsley and citrus-barbecue sauce, is the best-selling flatbread pizza. No. 2 is the Chef’s Choice, $8.49, which lets guests build their own from 15 ingredients.

Uno has also focused on creating signature entrees. BBQ Pork Sticks, available as an appetizer, $3.99, and entree, $11.99, is the most intriguing top seller, moving at a rate of 4,000 orders per week at Uno’s company units. “People already loved our ribs, but this was the chance to build on that,” Gatto says.

Pork Sticks—pork shanks marinated, slow-cooked and served with traditional barbecue sauce and the citrus-barbecue sauce Gatto developed for the BBQ Chicken pizza—are tidy to eat, thanks to the partially frenched bone.

To keep from overwhelming operations with so many new items, the chain staggered introductions. Some of the items rolled with the June 10 summer menu, more came with the August summer menu, and the balance went on the formal new menu introduction in the fall.

Bar Snacks & Power Lunches
Gatto says the new menu has been a good fit for Uno’s new prototype launched last year. Beyond new decor, units are fitted with interactive kiosks featuring Uno fun facts as well as information from the company’s new full-time nutritionist. “We’re getting a lot of positive comments through the kiosks,” he says. “They list the top eight food allergies, for example, and let guests with those allergies know how they can build meals from Uno’s menus that work around them.”

And marketing to the happy-hour crowd and business diners, Uno’s launched a broader beverage program with more signature drinks, new boutique wines and more wines by the glass (up to 12, from eight). The new “Snack at the Bar” focus consists of 12 snacks (some full and some partial portions of regular menu items) at discounted prices ($1.99 to $2.99). The “High Priority Lunch” features daily deep-dish or flatbread pizza meal deals bundled with soup or salad.

Next up, Gatto is developing seafood and steak items for the spring menu. Using some of the ingredients used in this year’s launches, Gatto talks about topping steak with a portobello sauce similar to the one used for the penne pasta and sees potential for the sun-dried tomato spread from the wrap sandwich. Limited-time offers will act as a “launching pad” for some items such as the pasta dishes Uno is testing now and will give the company flexibility to offer some seasonal items.

“The plan is to go farther out on the limb in more categories,” Gatto says. “Our guests are ready for that.”