What Makes Uno Pizzeria's Second Location Totally Unique

Uno Pizzeria has some of the best deep dish pizza in America. This should not come as too much of a surprise. After all, Uno Pizzeria is widely regarded as the creator of deep dish (which is not the same thing as stuffed pizza).

The creation of Uno Pizzeria and its 'za dates back to the mid-20th century. Back in those days, per the BBC, Italian immigrants had already filled Chicago with Americanized versions of Neapolitan pizza. Then, in 1943, Ike Sewell and Ric Riccardo opened up a Windy City restaurant with its own spin on 'za. Uno Pizzeria's hour-baked, buttery, crunchy crust rose so high that its pizza pie was more like a fruit pie in stature, allowing for extra ingredients to be mixed in and inverted (sauce on top).

Soon enough, there were lines out the door of Pizzeria Uno (what we call the brand's first location), and deep dish became a Chicagoan icon. This culinary invention was so popular that there are now over a hundred Uno Pizzeria locations spread across more than a dozen states and even a few foreign countries. Among those, the original location naturally stands out for its creativity, but so does its sister site, which is totally unique for one charming reason.

This may seem rather obvious to some, but "uno" means "one" in Italian. Meanwhile, "two" in Italian is "due." So, when Pizzeria Uno did so well that the business could expand, Sewell and Riccardo simply counted upward, unveiling Pizzeria Due in a Victorian mansion kitty-corner from the first location. Other Uno Pizzeria locations are not named in this numerically Italian manner (assumedly to avoid too much confusion), and thus, the premier sister site retains its special place in Uno Pizzeria history.

Beyond that, Pizzeria Due also serves as a symbol for Uno Pizzeria's growth, bridging the gap between the chain's past and its future. Per Crain's Chicago Business, Sewell's widow eventually sold the buildings that housed both Pizzeria Uno and Due to Aaron Spencer, a CEO who had franchised the chain across the country, changed the brand's name for a time, and expanded the pizzeria's menu. In 2020, though, the brand started returning to its roots, with a change in leadership and a renewed focus on pizza. By 2022, Spencer even sold the buildings that housed Pizzeria Uno and Due back to the Uno Pizzeria company itself.

The original Pizzeria Uno may have a similar story, but it will primarily go down in history as the birthplace of deep dish. Pizzeria Due, on the other hand, has represented expansion from the very start, and its name still speaks to that fact. Now, Pizzeria Due also represents a return to form for the business.

"Tre" follows "due" in Italian, but the Uno Pizzeria chain is already well past opening its third location. So, where does the company go from here? According to Crain's Chicago Business, a few cosmetic changes are coming to Pizzeria Uno and Due, but not much else.

The main item on the company's agenda is expanding into hotels. As explained by Restaurant Dive, this allows Uno Pizzeria to convert sites quickly and keep franchise costs low by using the preexisting infrastructure. At the beginning of 2023, FSR Magazine reported 2022 was a record year of growth for Uno Pizzeria. A handful of hotels signed up — the first domestic franchise-based growth for the business in over a decade. Plus, these sites have already done so well (even non-hotel guests regularly dine in) that the hospitality brands involved have agreed to host Uno Pizzerias located in additional hotels.

Even with all this exciting news, it's worth noting that Pizzeria Due has largely remained the same since its inception. Neither the company's midlife crisis nor its cutting-edge plans for the 2020s upended the second-ever Uno Pizzeria. Deep dish is its bread and butter, it never uses partially baked crust to cut corners, and its longtime employees know the pizza recipe by heart. With its name, Pizzeria Due represents the company's exciting future, but with its operations, it enshrines the business' influential past, and that makes the present of Pizzeria Due a true gift.