Chain Change

Now that the most hyped name in pizza on the Country Club Plaza is the California Pizza Kitchen (see Café), the nearby Pizzeria Uno (4710 Jefferson Street) has discreetly changed its name to the Uno Chicago Grill. Actually, the formal name change occurred six months ago, according to a spokesperson for the restaurant chain, but a new sign hasn’t been put up yet. “Signage will be changed over time,” says the spokesperson, who asked not to be named.

The original Uno Pizzeria in Chicago was the official birthplace of deep-dish, Chicago-style pizza in 1943, when Ike Sewell and Ric Riccardo began baking it in iron skillets. Neither that venue nor its sister restaurant, Pizzeria Due, will be getting a name change. The anonymous corporate spokesperson’s explanation is typically vague: “We feel that the branding reflects both our heritage and commitment to deliver a variety of high-quality entrées, salads, appetizers and specialty drinks.” In other words, the company wants to lure an audience bigger than the pizza crowd.

That makes sense in Kansas City, where the pizza business is highly competitive; many of the national chains are offering cheaper and cheaper pizza deals. And Uno may not offer the wide variety of international-style creations served by its new neighbor, the California Pizza Kitchen, so it has upped the ante in the grill section. New items include a steak-and-shrimp dinner and shrimp scampi.

Will a Philadelphia staple — cheese steaks — have the same long-lasting appeal as pizza? Kansas City has seen a marked rise in cheese-steak joints over the past year, including the Cheezteak Company, which has five of its six locations in the local metro area. Until last March, the company headquarters was based in Lee’s Summit. Then founders Kim and Mark Coats moved to Las Vegas. “Vegas is a good place for a central office because everyone here is from somewhere else,” Kim Coats says.

Two more local Cheezteak Company sites are under construction here, and the Coatses are selling franchises everywhere else. But despite the z in the company name, their sandwiches are made with provolone cheese rather than with the “real” Philadelphia favorite, Cheez Whiz.

“This isn’t an authentic Philly sandwich, but our own version,” says Kim, a Chicago native. “We know some people like Cheez Whiz. Other people want cream cheese. Provolone is kind of our compromise.”