Pizzeria Uno Gives Hotel Owners a Rare Opportunity to Bring a Beloved Neighborhood Restaurant to Their Guests and Local Community

Not many pizza franchises can claim to be the original creator of anything these days, but Pizzeria Uno, the neighborhood pizzeria franchise, has solidified itself as a piece of pizza history, recognized as the true birthplace of Chicago-style deep dish. This established reputation and winning offering has helped franchisees thrive for decades, and now, Pizzeria Uno is leveraging its infrastructure to carve out another niche by entering the lodging industry. With the launch of a new hotel restaurant conversion strategy, the brand is giving hotel owners a chance to open a full-service Pizzeria Uno restaurant connected to their hotel, tapping into the brand’s nationally-recognized menu and universally in-demand product to serve both guests and local members of the community.

“As a franchise company, we are always looking for the best strategy for our concept,” said Erik Frederick, CEO of Pizzeria Uno. “Since converting three in-hotel restaurants in the Midwest into Pizzeria Uno locations earlier this year, every one of them has seen significant sales growth. Their lowest week since converting would have been a record week for the restaurant pre-conversion. We have one location bringing in around 10 times the amount of volume on an average day.”

A Historic and Beloved Consumer Offering

Pizzeria Uno helps hotel owners increase their food and beverage program revenue by allowing them to sell one of America’s most popular foods and enter a $141 billion global industry. 

“Everyone loves pizza,” Frederick said. “When people travel, they want to have a memorable dining experience, and pizza has always been the number one option whether it’s dine-in or takeout or delivery.”

But Pizzeria Uno isn’t just another pizza franchise, Frederick says. Today, Pizzeria Uno is known all over the world due to its iconic menu and authentic brand name, meaning hotel operators have a rare opportunity to become part of that legacy.

In addition to its signature pizza, the Pizzeria Uno menu is primed for a diverse pool of hotel guests due to its wide range of offerings and its continued focus on innovation. 

“While the heart of the Pizzeria Uno menu is our signature, Chicago-style deep-dish pizza and our Chicago-style thin crust, there’s something on our menu for every diner,” said Frederick. “From our healthful salads, to a variety of tasty appetizers, to entrees ranging from chicken to steak to seafood, customers can satisfy almost any craving. We also have a culinary team revamping the menu yearly, which is a big advantage for franchise owners.”

The Benefit of More Revenue Streams

In today’s post-pandemic landscape, it is no secret that restaurants need to diversify their revenue streams in order to succeed, and Pizzeria Uno’s business model provides owners with the flexibility to blend in-store dining, carry out and home delivery. 

For hotel owners, this business model translates to five lucrative revenue streams: increased revenue from dine-in for hotel guests, take-out for hotel guests, take-out and/or delivery sales from the local community, dine-in revenue from people in the surrounding area who typically would not come to dine at a hotel restaurant and the potential addition of group sales driven by a experienced group sales team and system. An additional benefit may be seen from the hotel gaining additional guests due to the presence of a nationally known and respected restaurant brand.

“Hotel guests are coming in and seeing a known and loved brand that they feel comfortable dining with, and that automatically increases volume and capture rate compared to the typical non-branded restaurant,” said Chris Dellamarggio, Head of Marketing for Pizzeria Uno. “The restaurants also bring in locals who would normally have no reason to visit the hotel. The takeout and delivery piece has benefits from both the hotel guests ordering take out from the hotel restaurant instead of from outside the hotel, as well as orders coming in from people in the surrounding community.”

A Supportive Business Model

As Pizzeria Uno franchisees, hotel owners can be confident they will have everything they need to tap into the post-pandemic demand for both on-premise and off-premise dining, while also avoiding some of the common challenges restaurant owners are facing today. 

“We have an existing infrastructure that helps franchisees with the supply chain, marketing, training, technology, build-out, ongoing operations — every aspect of the business,” said Frederick. “We don’t mark up costs from our vendors, and in these times, having a supply chain team and national buying power that can help in an inflationary environment is key. We are sourcing for quality and price, and pizza already has one of the lowest food costs.”

Pizzeria Uno also has a higher price point compared to other pizza concepts, giving the brand a competitive edge in an industry challenged by labor shortages and a spiraling cost of ingredients. According to the National Pizza Index, the average large pizza costs American consumers between $8.90 and $16, depending on their location. Pizzeria Uno's signature pizza, the Uno, is priced more than $10 higher. The business model focuses on premium pizzas made with the best ingredients and dough made from scratch daily. As a result, the brand’s per-ticket revenues are much higher than most pizza restaurants in the space.

All of these factors translate to a higher ROI for hotel owners, Frederick says, especially since conversion costs are distinctly minimized as operators likely already have most of the equipment and kitchen in place. 

Connecting with the Community 

The Pizzeria Uno team understands that owning a pizza business means becoming part of the community in a fundamental way. For hotel operators, this means a rare chance to connect with both travelers and locals. 

“We are really focused on finding the right franchisees for the brand,” said Frederick. “We have a great culture here and are looking to partner with people who truly understand hospitality and are interested in becoming a long-lasting part of their community. The ideal franchisee will be someone with a passion for the Pizzeria Uno brand. Any franchise can give you all the training guides in the world, but it is the passion that is going to make the guests feel like they are taken care of.” 

This opportunity is ideal for hotel operators interested in converting their current hotel restaurant to a Pizzeria Uno branded restaurant, hotel operators building out new hotels and restaurants, or owners of existing hotels that are adding a restaurant for the first time. There are even opportunities for hotels that don’t have a kitchen because Pizzeria Uno provides a superior frozen product from their Uno Foods division. 

And with a tremendous amount of white space available, Frederick says Pizzeria Uno is one of the few nationally-renowned pizza concepts with room to grow all over the country. 

“At the end of the day, hotel owners desire more sales from their F&B program,” Frederick said. “We have a great solution: bring a well-known pizza brand to the hotel. Now, the time has never been better for hotel owners to invest in a Pizzeria Uno restaurant conversion, join a brand they can be passionate about, and make more money.”

For more information on investing in a Pizzeria Uno franchise, visit https://unofranchise.com/.

About UNO Pizzeria & Grill

Based in Boston, Massachusetts, Uno Restaurant Holdings Corporation includes 80 company-owned and franchised UNO Pizzeria & Grill restaurants located in 18 states, and the District of Columbia, India, and Saudi Arabia. UNO is all about connecting people over pizza – from its famous Chicago Deep Dish, which UNO invented in 1943, to its Chicago Thin Crust, to its gluten-free and vegan pizzas. The Company also operates Uno Foods, a consumer packaged-foods business that supplies supermarkets, airlines, movie theaters, hotels, airports, travel plazas, and schools, with both frozen and refrigerated private-label foods and UNO branded products. For more information, visit www.unos.com.